The Forum Gazette Vol. 1 No. 2 June 15-30, 1986 by The Sikh Forum

Ru pees Two

Fortnightly

Vol. 1 No. 2

Haryana bid to derail Venkataramiah Commission Can the Accord be put back on track? Baljit Malik

Harji Mal ik

Above: Jindiala Guru empty streets, shuttered shops as the violence - hit village observes a . protest bandh.

Na nd Kishore, (left) whose brother Vijay Kumar was k illed by terrorists in Krishnanagar, (Amritsar). Eleven people died, ten Hindus and one Sikh. Vijay's m other, Vina Devi (with folded hands) tells how hel: son was shot.

PUNJAB STRUGGLES FOR SANITY THE ACCELARATING CRISIS In Punjab today there is a tangible sense of forbodeing at the grassroots level and total lack of confidence in the ability of the administr a1ive and political authority to control events. Harji Malik unjab has reaped a bumper harvest. Mounds of golden wheat lie heaped in fields . in front of godowns. Wh!'TP. combines have been at work the packed bags are massed under plastic covers all along the highway from Delhi (0 Amritsar. Farme.rs are busy ploughing fl ooded fields preparing for the

paddy. and many fields are already green with seedlings. This is the familiar face of Punjab , smiling. a land of p lenty . But under the facade of normalcy it is a different story. Smiles are mIssIng in Jindiala Guru. a village 12 kilome tres from Amrilsar. where terrorists struck on May 29th. On May 31st we saw only grim,

tension ridden faces in the village. A bandh had been called in protest at the inact ion of the SHO, Paramjit Singh, demanding his removal. The streets were semi-deserted , CRPF jawans lounged in clusters everywhere. and Hindu residen ts sa t in front of th eir shuttered shops, some talking softly, others silent. The village seemed to be waiting-for what wou ld happen next. Punjab today is a contradiction of realities. In Ludhiana , )u ll undar, Amritsar, the bazaars are crowded, the mandis busy. Sikhs and Hindus chat together. Sikh dhabas do a thriving trade with Hindu customers and vice versa . Turbaned and bareheaded youngsters stroll together in joking camaraderie or go about sharing two wheelers. On the surface life seems absol utel y normal. But at night in many places two wheelers are not permitted on the roads after dark for fear of terrorist activity. In Krishnanagar. just on the outskirts of Amritsar. where 11 Continued on page 15

aryana's role in the Venkataramiah Commission, which fai led to submit its report on May 30, goes to suggest that not all the int ractable elements wh ich have come in the way of a credible sol ution of the Punjab problem are to be necessari ly found in Punjab. Extremism and terrorism in themse lves are not the on ly road blocks on the way to better days for the Punjabi people. According to sources close to the Commission, Haryana's attitude all along has bee n to prevent the Commission from arriving at a reasonable solution concerning Chandigarh. The removal of B4jan- La] is at least one indication that the central governmen t and the Congress-I are begi nning to have second thought-s abo ut the Haryana fac tor in the Punjab tangle. Scuttl ed by indecision in New Delhi and non-cooperation by Haryana, the Accord has nevertheless been inching fo rward even as the political climate has continued to de teriorate in Punja b. Wha t remains to be seen IS whether th e "new" dispe nsation in Haryana means business about implementing the Accord and accepting the Venkataramiah Commission's recommendations. The new Chief Minister has certainly said that Haryana would cooperate with the Commission's suggestions. but has yet to be seen to be acting on his words. t is now on the cards that Chandigarn will be tra nsferred to Punjab on June 21st. a transfer which should a~tually have taken place after the Indira Gandhi A ward in 1970. However, six teen years of political procastination pale into insignificance when set against Haryana 's bid to sabotage the proceedings of the Venkatliramiah Commission. It will be recalled tha t Justice Venkataramiah , a sitting judge of the Supreme Cou rt, was asked to take over the Chandigarh question where Justice Mathew had left it. The Mathew Commission had found itself unable to make a clear recommendation regarding Chandigarh as it got bogged down by its interpretation of clause 7.2 of the Accord which opened by stating: "It had always been maintained by Smt Indira Gandhi that when Chandigarb is

to go to Punjab. some Hindi speaking territories in Punjab will go to Haryana". The territorie~ Mrs Gandhi had in mind were from Fazilka and Abohar. This was an arrangement with which the Mathew Commission agreed. bu t given its terms of reference. could not actually recommend. Whether Justice Mathew was right or wrong in his view that in return for Chandigarh Haryana should be compensated with territory drawn only from Fazilka and Abohar is not the most pertinent part of the Chandigarh slory, wha t is perUnent is that accordi.ng to the principles of village as a unit, linguistic. affinity and contiguity no territory from Fazilka and Abohar cou ld be awarded to I [aryana . Taking into account its in terpretation of Mrs Gandhi's intentions coupled \'lith the f(lct that the Punjabi - speaking village of Ka ndu Khera broke the principle of contiguity. the Ma th ew Commission found itself unable to recommend a transfe r of terri tory to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh. The Commission opined "In these circumstances it is for the Government of India to take such suitable steps as it deems fit including the appoin tment of a Commission to give effect to the general intention of Smt Indira Gandhi to transfer some Hindi-speaking territories in Punjab to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh". Continued on page 15

Inside • Hindu Fears in Punjab by Jasjit Purewal • Amnesty Inte rnational: The World's conscience • We the People of Federal India by Inder Mohan • Hounding Gandhian Institutions and workers. • Plus Reviews. Reflections. Short Story and Humour.

:The

~~~e~m~·a_W_a_t_ch___________________ ~~ ___________________________

Atoning for Barnala'-s Sins The second fortnight in May saw the whole country in turmoil. Tamil Nadu increasingly agitated over the killings of Tamils in Srilanka. Karnataka and Maharashtra on the verge of a border war over the teaching of Kannada in a Marathi speaking district of their state. The repurcussions of the police massacre of innocent villagers in Arwal in Bihar. The involvement of the Chief of Orissa in a sex scandal. The Gurkha Liberation Front's agitation for autonomy in West Bengal (with a little help from the Cong-I). The Karanth - Vibha love - murder story in Madhya Pradesh and finally Punjab where inspite of Chief Minister Barnala's 'atonement' terrorists continue to bring shame to their community, Hindus emigrate out of Punjab, Akali politics sink deeper into the mud and the government continues to deny justice by passing yet another ordinance. The only good news was the conclusion of a successful hunger strike by Shabana Azmi , Anand Patwardhan and others to help rehabilitate evicted slum dwellers of Bombay. Preminder Singh trange news a lso kept coming from ab road all fortnig ht: "US swoops on a lie ns ne ts 50 Sikh s" sa id The Indi an Express of 14 Ma y. Were they swimm in g? Or is thi s a new spec ies of fish . On 1"9 May fo ur Sikhs · froro Le icester were charged with plotting to kill Mr Rajiv . Gandhi. The Indian High Commission (HC) was s urthat information prised about Mr Gandhi's ·itinerary came from a ' mole ' within the HC and ' reproached the UK' for not informing th em earlier. On the 22nd th e HC got over th ei r surprised . Mr. Gandhi's itinerary was public knowledge they insisted. I hope somebod"y apologised to Maggie. On the 22nd the plotters' were released and rearrested whi ch led defense lawyer Ivan Greffen to remark "There is a politi ca l consp iracy between the governmen t of this country and th e gov ernment of India" (Hindu Ma y 24) On 23 May Gurpa rtap Singh Birk was sen tenced to seven years imprisonment on charges of violating th e US neutra lify Act. On 28 May we were grateful to lea rn from the front pages of most newspape rs that th e secrete ly shot FBI film on Birk was shown on national te levision in the United States.

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• On 25 May national headlin es again with the news that "the Sikhs" planned to blow up EXPO 86 in Van couver. The source of this information - a little provincial paper quoting "a police informer". * On 26 May four Sikhs shot Punjab Planning Minister Sid hu in Vancouver. * On 31 May five Sikhs were arrested near Montreal for plotting- to blow up an AirIndia plane.

Sport That was the Foreign news. And now Sport. Good news ffom Mexico where the Italian football team 'was allowed ona days sex 'if' they got through to the second round, but bad news for the Mexicans "The World Cup Soccer organising committee has bann ed romance during the Mexico finals ... " How this is going to be possible is left in doubt "because hostesses are encou raged to be friendly and it is impossible tl'f lilke ten steps without being greeted with a flash y smi.le ·'£nd an e nthusias,ti c 'hola ' (hello)". On the cricke t fr()f1t Scyld Berry of th e London 'Observer' discovered Sri kant's batting secret. He has a habit of "gazing up at the sun before each delivery as a gesture of respect to Surya th e sun god", "IL mi ght be that" says the Sunday Obse rver (May 18) "or may be he is ·trying to straighten his neck. Anyway we believe iUs a good idea for india cricketers to regale English cricket correspondents with their oriental exotica".

6arnala' ~ penance Chuirina n. Boat·u of Ed it ors Lt. Gen'. 'agjit Singh Aurora

Nothing caused as much confusion, amusement and controversy however as Chief Min(ret~.J

Manug in g Editor

Baljit Malik Edi tors

G.S. Sandhu, Harji Malik, A.S. 'Narling Associat e Editor

Avlar Singh Judge Circ ulati o n Lt. Col. Manohar Singh (retd.) Adminis trative O,f,fi ce

3 Masjid Road, Bhogal. New OeI-hi-ll0014. Phon e 694756 Ed it oriu l (Camp) Office 4 Bhagwa n Oas Road, New Oelhi-ll0001. Ph o ne 385270. 385042 Te le x 315220 HBLK FOR GAZETTE

ister Barnala 's 'Paschatap '. l'The Punjab Chi ef Minister today appeared before the high priests of th e Golden Temple and agreed to dust shoes for a week , deposit rupees 500 in the temple treasu ry and recite th e jAPJI 25 tim es to atone for having sen t the police into the Golden Temple on April 30." (Telegraph 18 May). "But atonement for what?" asked Girilal jgin' (TO! 19 May) "Our problem is that Mr. Barnala is not an ordinary Sikh who has bowed to the authority of the head priests. He is the Chief Minister of a State of the indian Union and it is in that capacity that he ha s allowed him self to be judged and punished by 'I n authority which the Indian Union ca nnot and does not recognize . .. Mr. Barnala is Chief Minister of a ll th e Punjabis not just of th e Sikhs . . : by doing what he has done. Mr. Barnala has not only humiliat ed him self and the governm ent over which he pre sides but also delivered himself bound hand and foot to an ext ra consti tutional auth orit y." George Verghese (IE 19 May) said "Barnala stands tall ... if he has accepted certain tok en punishment. . . he has don e so not with any sense of guilt but ... in keeping with a tradition that the great Maha ra ja Ranjit Singh too once followed . . . while some may fault him he has acted a ppropriately eve n shrewdl y without abandoning any principl e. In doing so, Mr. Barnala has echoed Christ's answer when sought to be trapped by his ' detractors who asked whether and to whom 'peopl e should pay taxes: "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is his. "This remains

Sunday 15-30 June 1986

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,th e best definition of the lin e that demarcates religion from politics in a secular as opposed to a theocratic state". Nikhil Chakravarty (Telegraph 27 May) was not very happy with the Chief Minister who "makes a demonstration of his obeisance to the priestly order b.y turning himself into a shoesh-ine boy for his so-called misdemeanour in carrying out his secular responsibility of combatting secessionists as th e head of the state government.

Many faces of Barnala he Tribun e (19 May ) had a two in one ex planation. They point out "th e di stinction between Mr. Su rjit Singh th e hea d of government and Mr. Surjit Singh 'a poor Sikh from Barnala . T he priests handed down th eir 'ta nkh a ' to him in hi s form er ca pacity but he received th e punishm e nt in his laller capaci ty." Khushwant Singh (Telegraph 26 May) splits him into three. "Barnala is three persons in one - Chief Minister of th e State. President of the Akali Dal and a devout Sikh." He obtained sanction as party president, oredred 'Operation Search' as Chief Minister and accepted puni shm e nt as a Sikh. Kuldeep Kumar (Sunday Observer May 25) was there as "Barnala the ordinary Sikh is '!toning for thE action ordered by Barnala the dutiful Chief Minister." "Barnala sits cross-legged over a chadder .. . he is taki~g his job very seriously .. . with a clean white duster ... he dusts both the inner and outer surfaces of the shoes. He is reci ting the ' japji sahib' conti nuously. He is not looking around at all. His eyes are set on th e s hoes."

The Historical Angle Easi ly the best article on the ubject was th e simp le hi stori-

ca l explanation "The meaning of Paschatap " (Tribune june 1) by Dona Suri . "Pasc hatap is part of th e process of se lf-correct ion instituted ... by Guru Gobi nd Si ngh in 1699 .. . confession and a toneme nt were the ways to keep human error from cau sing too much harm ... twice the Sangat ordered Gur u Gnbind Singh to do Pasha tap . .. even Maharaja Ranjit Singh was twice declared 'Tank hiya' (punish ed) and sen tenced to twenty lashes . .. howe ve r after th e Mahara ja had allowed himself to be bound .. . the jat hedar declared tha t Ranjit Si ngh 's humble submission was e nough and wilived th e actua l puni shm en t. Oth e r Sikh lea de rs summon ed before the Aka l Takht: Ma ster Ta ra Singh for breaking hi s fa st unto death . San t Fa te h Sin gh for not. keeping his word se lfafte r threa tening immol a lion . Both were punish ed. President Zail singh was "ca ll ed on th e charge of ha ving an umbrella over his hea d while walking to Harimandir Sa hib but his expl ana tion that he was not aware of th e umbrella was accepted and no atonement required of him ." Union Home Minister Buta Singh refused to appear before the Aka l Takht and was - excommunicated. "To apologise at Darbar Sahib is not humiliating" sa ys Inder Gujral (Sunday Observer 18 May) "but what if militants capture the temple again ." Khushwant Singh (Telegraph June 2) has the beginning's of a solution . "It is time Sikh leaders come forward boldl y into the open to combat this continuing menace which is bringi ng disgrace on the fair names of their Gurus and the communit y . . . In th e hi story of the Sikhs there is not a singl e instance of people assuming the garb of Sikhs to kill unarmed innoce nt peopie . . . Sikhs will never forgive those who are blackening the pages of sik h hi story. •

_F_o_rt_n_ig_h_t_F_O_C~_u_s__________________ ~~~___________________________

Hindu VS Militancy

HINDU FEARS IN PUNJAB

" o ur a tt empt is to mak e the Hindus so stro ng /a lota. blames the Cen tre and th a t they will not the. PunJab .Government for in· leave th e Punjab." Ramkant actIOn. Whl.l e ~he Ce ntre takes Jasjil Pu rewa l no responslbIl!ty for the Hin· fa lota, Hindu Shiv Sena leader. he fin a l and seemin gly ul· A. No! Many have c hose n to who liv es in Phagwara ex. dus , the Punjab Government timate stage in th e Punjab stay. But a ll are te rrifi ed. plains th a t thi s is th e obj~ctive does not have~ood intentions crisis has a rriv ed . Hin d u towa rds . th e HIndus. So t~ e Q. Who do you feal of th e Sh iv Sena in the prese nt by Our Special Correspondent migration to th e neigh· Punjab situation , A jewe ll er by communIty must look after It· spec ifi ca ll y? bOll rin gsta tes has beg un to lend y profession /a lo ta ex. self as well as it ca n, Jalota 's A. Th e te rrorists . who con· famil c red ibilit y to th e te rm c~nt e ntion is t?at in their view plains that the Hindu Shiv Se na tinu e, un chec ked, to spread 'K ha li stan ' as no sin gle sloga n was started on Shivratri in 1984 Hll1 dus and SIkh s are "b hais" s uch absu lute fea r. More impor. or a rgume nt ha s don e so far. beca use Bhindranwal e men ~ut ~e say~ th a t "We ca ll th em ta ntl y. we fea r th e puli ce both And ye t a sin gle dist inc t strea k were killin g Hindus , and Hin. bhal·bh als, t?ey do not call us for it s in e ffectiv e ness a nd it s dus lik e him fe lt th e need for of hope rema ins. defy in g w ha t broth ers. T~ e lr Sa nt mahatmas co mpli cit y. And of co urse we IT.Os t have co me to see as a n ir· th e communit y to un it e to pro. have grea t'nfl~ence on them . fea r th e Akali go ve rnm en t tec t itse lf. Th e Shiv Sena revoca bl e situ a tion. T hi s streak But. non e of th ei r Sants, none of whi ch has des pit e th e Hindu rests in th e peo)J le of Punjab: th eir l e.ad~rs c? ~e here and ca ll organises peop le in villages a nd m an d a t (~, proved tota ll y incapa· th e on ly fac tor w hi c h if rea li w d to wns. " If any Hindu :s kill ed or us th eir ~hals . Why cannot bl e of prut ec tin g olJr ri ghts . can re turn Punjab eve n th o ugh be in g ha rassed we go th e re", th e re be a. hukumnama' to say Q. Wh a t a buut communal falot a says, but deni es reports few chose to ml! llti on it. Cu n· tha t te rrori s ts w~o kill innocent dish a rmon y in Punjab? Has it tra ry to the m ed ia build up, th e people are not SI~hs?" ,. th at yo un g me n are given any rea c hnd a n irrf)con c: ili ab le Hindu s w hu le<1v() tod<1Y, do so training. They a re on ly give n Ashok Uppa l IS more mIll' tant . "W ~ WI' 11 ~ o tl .eave p ' b" puinl '/ no l u nel e r fea r of th e Si k'h mass· re li giuus in stru cti o n and un)a es bu t becausBof fo rcesof tr.rror h ~ says .. We will fight and if we A. Nol T he rr. is ve ry lilli e "Tris hul Dh aran." whi c h have a para ll r. 1 no t on ly l3ul he admit s t ha l w he reve r di e we will take some with us". te nsion b()tween th(~ com m uni · in th e NOV~)I1 1bc·~ r C<1I'Iwge bllt ti es as suc h sin ce we s h'lI'e a th e re is truubl e Hindu Shiv a re uniformly and sys te mati ca l· Sena vo lunt ee rs are sent to he lp It UI1W and e u Ilu re w hi ch goes Iy des troyin g Ih e soci<1 1 fabric of back gene rntions. Thus th n out. He cla ims th a t th ese vo lun · lit e e ntire nation. ffin elll·Sik h lInit y al th e vi ll nge teers played th e ir part in The UllSCl'l lpu lous politi · leve l r:nllnot bn chidl r·)nged easi· Nakodar. Bata la. and oth e r plac· AlJOve: Ram Kan! Jallll ... Shi v Sena leader in Phag",ara warns of inr.reasing cian, the currupt )Jo li i:e forcl ! l y! -Th (~ Sik hs fenl eqlla ll y co n· es. But fa luta warns "We are los· mitiJancy uf yuulhfut Trishul Oharis. Betow: Durgiaoa lempte, Amritsar - view a nd tJl e illsC'nsitivp. Armv, (IJ'(!-' fU:~e(\ by Ih !. nwss (lild Ih [~ m il i· ing grip on ou r you th. T hey are frum Sa nl Niwas, tn!:at Shiv Sen .. office. <111 to(J fami li pr t l~rms: ' once lanev of Ihe fpw and tl \(! ' ask in g li S to give th e m m ilit ary aga in Sigllii'ic<lllt in th e tal e of dill(; ri lllcn lil!s in lhe fad th Ht training. If th ey become mi li· ·th e migrating Hindu: T h(! 1'01 w h l!ri~ tWI) y(!ilrS ago thny ta nt. W8 may nol be ab le to ca n· lowing is iln inll~ rview with Mr. wo uld Iw ve OIW! d y I'e l a li al(~d trol th e m. Peopl e fro m oth er ,. Brij ~/t l1 l 1(1n Shingill'i. n school ngains t nny ntt nck o n thr~ ir sta tes have come to the m, from teachm' 1'1'0111 Fatiahbad n(),H Ilin d il n(~ i ghlJoul's. toda y th ey Karnal. from li mac ha l and sa id t\mrit sar who has f1 pd to IJc~ lhi are equallv Inrrifi(!d and t he1'(~ · that if you can' t look a ft er th e with Iwnl\'f! otiwi families 1'1'0111 foro s i)(~ nl. SOIll~! IllCl Vsne this as Punjab: th en we w ill look after his ar(~ n . n r. lw nge in t" r. Si k'" psyc h c~ : I it!" The Oldy way to peace in th e Q. When and whv did you juSI see it as rnar. And le t us not forgnt th at th e Hindus Sikh r.on· state, in faiola' s v iew, is for the leavp VOUI' homes? np.clion through Clcr.r.s try and Hindus to have. eq ua l fo rce as A. We Ir.rt aftc~ r tlw m:1rl'iag(! is ]lo t an oasy one to the Sikh s. "We must be give n li· Coindval in cide nt 011 7th Mav chn lI r.nge. censes for arms" he goes on a nd w h ~1 re It pP.O) Ie wr.rr. sho t den;1 Q. YO Ii mentioned pq li cp (~x pl a in s th at a t the mom e nt in4 d iffnrent in cide nt s. Life hOi s arms li ce nses a re not giv en 1.0 comp lic it y. Can yo u s p ec ify'~ come to a ~ Ia ndst i II for us a nd it Hindus - As hok Uppa l. th e is not possi bl e to line under A. T lw PUlljnb po lice is th e Ph agwara Prnd ha n int e rj ec ts to suc h co nsl a llt fear. mol Cilllsn of Ill uch of th e dis· say th a t if necessa ry they will Q. Hav e a ll tl 1(~ Hindu fa nti· ruption (I f peace in Ppnjab. Th e ge t arms ill ega ll y - hi s co m· lies migra ted from yuur area? pla int be in g th a t because th e I'icluros by Harii Mali k Con ti nued on page 13 police are mostly, ikhs. th e re is t - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - , discrimina ti on aga in st Hin d us, He a ll eges that Ph agwa ra is peace ful on ly beca use the AISSI : and Shiv Sena are eve nl y ma tched. On March 2 ~~ r d th e Hindu C') () S hiv Sena had a Tris hul March ;;)11::\ t11? 1.. ' ~ .2. ~;;",..~ 'i nAmrit sa rd ema nding th a tth e 71 n ~ "" '" 0 CRPF be given ind ependent ~ ~ ":I. ~ ~ 1 - ~:z A,)Y ·'?r t.;=n·r7'~ , charge to dea l with the te rro r· t ~ -u ~ .... , \:1 , '\' \.,;) :.' ,n 1 " . ists but falota says th a t nothing ~ f) ~ f)C'.i carne of it beCa use th e Ce ntre \ ~>f ~~ Tt ' :l . ~ · ~ -')\t'._~ ~~ was "wa rmin g" up Mr Barnala. ""7l ..Ii... He visi ted th e border a reas on Sl~ J. ' " ~~ -·~· S th e 6t h May an d wro te to Rajiv <l Gand hi all th e nex t da y. He .') / ", \ ~J ,~ .. ~~ . -"-~,.?....~- :- warned th at peopl e wo uld leave <') ~ from various villages in Tarn Above: Fatehb.. t1 vi llage (Tarn Taarn \? :2.(?'7"0 ",\1&="" , ~"" Tara n area, he told th e D,C. at dist!.) from which Hindu migration is increasing. Hindu shopkeepers who [ \ -:. • \ "'I~'? ~~ '." . ~~-~. ~. ~ . , ~." Amritsar, he teleQhoned th e are sticking it out: One of them (centre')' ~~ bf ;' A. ,. I ~ Chi ef' Minister In Chanolgarh. has grown h.is heard and SIJorts a 2) \.. () . But no one respond ed. On lh e saJron Pagri as prolect.ion (in Dethi many Sik hs have cut hair and shaved • _ _'2-. . ? '. 17th and 18th people sta rt ed for idenlicat rcasons), ~ .:'" com ing ou t but no one stopped )1") =- '~~ \ " V.'ir.~ · _t_ h e_m_. _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

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Long live Khalistan. Rajpal , you vacate the shop within 3 months, otherwise it will be set on fire. Last time you saved your life by escaping from your house. But now your end is near. You talk in a very boastful manner and declare your enmity with Sikhs. Now no time will be lost to take revenge for all this. (All India Sikh Students Federation Amritsarl Jasvinder Singh and Amarjit Singh who ~re informing on us will soon be punished.

MERCllRY TRAVELS (lNIlIA) UIfREII

Jeevan Tara Building. Parliament Streei, New Delhi · lI0001 Phone: 310602,312008,

Sunday 15-30 June 1986

~O =u=r~T_im __ es___________________

LIGHTING CANDLES WORLDWIDE

F8rum __________________________ Gazettc

Amnesty . The Penalty Attack on Civil International of Death Liberties the conscience S of the World

tHE REMARKABLE WORK OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL r[l is better to li ght a cand le than ,to curs e th e darkn ess'. Wherever you are in th e world tod<l Y, who do you turn to if you are arrested for you r politi ca l or religiou s beliefs? Who has acted consistently aga inst torture and inhum an treatment? Who ha s propaga ted a powerful campaign aga ins t the death penalty? Who has effectively highlighted political killings by governments? The answer to a ll th e above questions is one: a worldwide movement called Amnesty jnternationa! Ov er th e las t twenty years , Amnesty Interna tiona l has moved to the forefront of th e global human rights movement. Concerned with th e protection and promotion of human rights, Amnest y has grown into a network of more than 5,00,000' members, s ubscribers and supporters in over 160 cou ntries. There are over 3,000 permanent Amnesty groups in more than 50 countri es in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas and th e' Middl e East. Amnesty is primarily concerned wiLh see king th e release of what it calls ' prisoners of conscience'-people detained for th e ir beliefs or because of their colour, ethn ic o ri gin . race or sex. Working for th e fa ir and prompt tri al of poli tical prisoners, it also ac ts aga in s t tor ture and th e d ea th pe na lt y. More re centl y, it has la un c he d a major campaign to combat ex tra jud icial killin gs by gove rnments . The widespread ' di sa ppeara nce' of peopl e has a lso becom e one of it s cru c ia l co n ce rn s. Working thro ugh the worl dwide network of loca l groups. in anyone year, Amnesty works on behalf o f over four thousand individu a l cases of pri sone rs of co n sci nce. Members are as ked to write or se nd te legrams to h eads of State or appropriate offic ia ls on b e haH of the pr isoners. G roups only hand le cases of prisone rs he ld in countri es other than th e ir own . It is a re(Jec lion of th e power of this campo ign thaI o ne oul of every Iwo su ch prisone rs are freed, gron/ed a reduction oj sentence or give n beUer

Irea lment. Amnes ty also sends missio ns or trial observe rs to countries finan Ciall y supports prisoners and th eir families, act s as a

pressure group on gove rnm e nt s and several U nited Nations bodi es . a nd reg ularl y publish es rna jor reports. Th ese re ports ha ve becom e a major ha llm ar k of Amn es ty 's work . Th e re are three main kinds o f reports: Co untry re ports documenting violation o f hum an rights, specia l repor ts on politi ca l killings, torture, e tc . and an annua l report highlighting violations a ll over the world . The real strength of Amnest y's work li es in its strict adherance to politi ca l neutrality . Ye t, th ere have been regular acc usa tions and angry reactions from a ll across the politi ca l spectrum. For instan ce , Amnesty was called an instrument of communist terrorism" by Brazil w hil e Ghana has ca ll ed it "an imperia li st boCly". The Soviet Union once described Amnesty as an "o rganisation which con ducLs anti Soviet propqganda". It must be understood Lhat Amnesty's work has severe lim itations . While most of these are se lf-imposed , some need to be don e a way with (for instan ce, th e de lay in responding to gross, sys tema ti c vio lations). How ev e r , within th e sco pe of a major international initiative that maintains impar tiality a nd e n joys a legitim a te position all over th e world. what it has ac hi eve d is of no small significan ce. Th e re is , obvious l y a lot more to do and Amnesty wi ll have to bot·h e xpand it s m a n d a te (as it h as a lrea d y, don e to an ex ten t, wit h th e inclusion of po liti ca l kil.lings and disappearances) ilnd cr eate st ru c tures to respo nd more rapi dl y than it does il l prese nt. The viola tions o f civ il liberLies a nd d e mocrati c ri gh ts continue un a baLed a llove r th e world. Tn th e years to come, .organisa ti on s like Amnesty are going to be ca ll ed u pon to pay a n eve n more c r iti ca l and in c isive ro le in constru c ti ve ly interve ning in thi s si tu a tion . A more effective ch ain, lin king toge t her efforts from th e local to the in terna Iiona I wi II need to be estab lis h ed. In th r. final a n a lys is, Amnesty s ho ul d definite ly continu e to b e a cru cia l pa rt of thi s worldwide moveme nt w hi c h can , a t bes t, be ca ll ed a co nspiracy of h ope .

MANUSHI A JOURNAL ABOUT WOMEN AND SOCIETY Individual Yearly Subscription Rs. 30 C1 / 202. La jpa t Naga r-1, New De lhi-11 0024 Ph o n e~ 693 158, 617022

Sunday 15-30 June 1986

The Amnesty Mandate • Secure th e immedi a le and unconditional re lease of a ll pri so ne rs of co nscie nce . • Ensure fair a nd prompt tri a ls for <lll politi cal prison e rs. Abo li s h to rture and • executions.

The Campaign • Hum a n ri ght sarea hum an res ponsi bi Ii ty. Wh e neve r th ey are violated . peopl e Are th e victims. Th ey and th e ir fami lies nee d prac ti ca l he lp. • Through it s ne twork of m e mbe rs a nd support e rs , Amnesty Int e rnati o na l takes up individual cases. 1lI0bilises publi c op inion an d see ks improv ed inte rnation a l standards for th e trea tm e nt o f prisoners. • You can add yo u r nam e to Amnes ty Internati o na l 's growing ca mpaign: You can beco m e a subsc rib e r, by jo ining th e In di a n Sect ion , se ndin g in a dona lion a nd s upportin g its wo rldwid e a p p~a l s. Th e address o f th e Indi a n Sectio n is: Amn es ty Int e rn a ti ona l C/ o Oate line De lhi 2 1, Northend Comp lex Panc h kuin Rond Nflw Delhi- ·t 10001

trongly be lieving Ih a t th e death pe nalt y has no spec ial oe te rrent va lu e a nd that it e n co ura ges il c lima te of vio le nce a nd di sres pect for hum an li fe, Amnesty ha s un eq uivoca lly opposed th e d ea th penalty. The worldwid e mov emen t for abo liti on has had signifi ca nt. if s low. ac hieve m e nts . I:orty s ix cOlln lries have lega ll y a bo lish ed it ((~igh l 'e n of th ese retain it on ly fo r ce rtain warti me c rim es ). w hil e 50 cou ntri es ha ve nol r.a rr ied o ut a n y exec u ti o ns si nce 1!.J80. Ins pi te o f !\ rn nes ty 's wid e sprea d ca mpaigns (whi ch ex((mu to th e pub li c . 10 legis la tors a nd to hea d s of govern m e nt), according to its own do c umentati o n. 1.125 peop le we re e xecuted in 1!.J8!'i a lo ne (Th e true total would . of co urse . be mu ch hi gh er as many governments delibe ra tel y co nceal or fail to a nnoun ce th e e xecution of th ose it a rr es ts). Of th ese. there were 137 co n firmed exec utions in South Afri ca while at least 57 we re exec ute d in Paki s tan . In China. wh e re over 40 offe n ces ca rry the death pe na lt y. 135 were exec ut ed, some for forming a "reac ti onary sec re t soc iety " a nd "ex ploiting feudal s upe rs titions." Three peop le w e re s hot a ft e r being convict e d of holding "u a nce a nd sex parties ."

Amnesty International

In In d ia , variolls civ il libe rti es and demo crati c rights activis ts and organisations hav e been faci ng an increasing ons la u gh t and vi ll ificrltion campai gn by cen tra l and sta te governmen ts. Th e killin g in co ld b lood of Dr. Ramana lham , a lead in g c ivi l libert ies figure in Andhra by th e po li ce in Septe mber last yea r was an exp losive ins ta nce of thi s new trend. A no th er example was th e systema ti c smear campaign th at w a~ s tarted against PU CL a nd PLJ DR afle r th e publi ca tion o f its now class ic report "Who Are Th e C uilt y?". Th e C FD report "Opp ress ion in Punja b" also drew <l ve h e m e nt res ponse from the governme nt. Its au th ors we re a rrested and c harged with 18 hos t of offences including Sed ition! It is ins ta nces like th ese that mo tiva ted Amnesty to inclu<;le in its s tatem e nt before tn e 42nd annual sessio n ofthfl U.N. Commission on Human Rights (1 !.J86) th e following; "Human Ri ghts wou ld remai n a t h eo re ti ca l concept wi th o ut people acl ing in the ir d e fence. In mos t countries, th e re a re iso lat ed individuals or sma ll groups of ded icated people who take it upon them · selves to collect information about violations of human righ ts a nd to pu blicize their findings. But human rights defend e rs often h ave to work agai nst overwhelming odds. In try ing to protect the rights of ot hers, th ey have themselves in man y co untri es faced arbitrary arrest, torLure. "disappearances " or ex trajudicia l execution. [Th ey 1hav e ri s ked th e ir liberty and in som e cases their lives in t he i r work to protec Lthe liv es of oth e rs ... If th e very people w ho commit th emse lves mosl deepl y to th a Lca use th emselve!i fa ll vic tim of hum an righ ts vio· lations. it is tim e fo r th e int erna li ona l co mmunit y to react" .

Mr. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL T hey cedi him " Mr Amnestv Internat ionAl". He is Thomas Hal1llll a riJ erg, a tall. slim Swcdr.-dress him in the right c lothes and he is the p e rfect Viking. com p le te w ith th e close c li pped beard - who represe nts th e international conscience as Secm la ry General ot Amnesty Inte rn a tional. He was recen tl y in De lhi for Amnes ty's 251 h a nni versa ry. Amnes ty knows no frontiers and Ha mm ar berg gives th e re prese ntatives or gove rnments ma ny un comfortab le momen ts, For he knows tha t more th an 50 per cen t of governmen ts in al1 parts of th e world have th e ir "pri sone rs of co n sc ie nce", a ma il er th ey would rath e r push under tb e ca rpe l. But Amnesty does a ll it ca n to expose th ose secre ts a nd to work for the release of s u c h m e n and women by awakening the conscie n ce of a ll those who be li eve ill hum an rights.

Soft s poken. a n econom is t by '[raining, a working journalist fo r 20 years, Hammarbe rg was. in vo lved in th e ahli-apa rth eid moveme nt in student days. In 1964 Amnesty Interna ti onal came to wedell : He had been w ri ti ng and broadcasting on iss u es co nn ec ted w ith deve lop,men t aid, socia-economi c prob-

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OUf -~tlB ______________ -Times - - - - - - - - - -__ U~~ lems and human ri gh ts. "Amnfisty 's work offered a wa) of working against oppression in concre te wa ys which appea l'ed to me" he says. Tired of th e usual cli ches and discussions h e saw Am nestv work as th e way to express co ncre te sol ida rit y. wo rkin g wi th individuals as a n indi vi du a l. Th e ir prin cip les were hi s be liefs. So he joined th em. fo rm ing a lit tl e grou p in the Stockh olm suburb w here he l ived. Made Chairman of the Swedish Boa rei in EJ70. he was nom in a ted to the interlla ti onal executiv e Cl year later. in c.harge of t he id eological I'untnnt. Ihe basir. pr inciples or th e urganisation. ln t ~IR() when he was elec ted Secre lil rv eenera \. a more Ihan fu ll lime job. 1\(: movnd 10 London. A mnesty's Worki ng Meth ods Amllf'st v has ils own wav 01' working. I'vlemu 'rs til) no l ~urk I'l) l' the organisa tion in the ir own co ull tri(:s b":C(luse the suujecl ma tter t l ll ~ y ha ve to eI(':n I wi th is so sr~ nsi l ;ve . Ihp.\, wou ld inp.v it Lbly be drawn inl~ tl w polit ica l wd). Alld siner' Amnesty has 'no poli tirs ' t h (~ work wuu lel iJ{!. imposs ibl p.. So nIC mbe rs w ril e to the press. mOllll1 (:ampa iglls an d ca rry on 01110 r ac l i v iti es for pr isO ll c:rs ill cu untr if1s oth er th an th eIr ow n. Co ll ec li ng inl'orma li on is a n informa l a ffair. Peo pl e w ritp. in to Amnes ly abo ut cases th ev kn ow a bo ut 01' h ave rea d a boui . 01' famil y membe rs uf pri so ners se nd in de ta il s. Civil ri ght. orga ni sa tion s. Irade uni ons and oth er bodi es a lso fee d in informati on. A mn es ty in Lo nd on s ubscri bes to newspape rs fro m ma ny co untri es a nd glea ns inform a ti o n through lh e m. (Thi s repo rt er rece ived a le tt er fro m Amn es ty a ft e r publi s hin ga n a rti cle on "Opera ti o n Wood rose" aski ng fo r mo re de lails. ) All informa ti o n is e valu a ted and ve tt ed th o ro ughl y by a stCl fi of 100 researc he rs, p a rl of tIll' 800 stro ng sec re ta ria l. On ce th e a rea speci ali s t resea rche r is sa t· isfi ed lh a t fa cts a re correc\' inform a tion is sent to loca l gro up ~ fo r rechecking. Afte r a second e valuation th e report is writ ten. and se nt to th e Sec retary Ge neral and Amnesty 's Lega l Ce ll. If th e re are an y qu esti ons t he fa c ts are check ed for th e third lime with initial contac ts. and on ly aft er this is the re port publi shed . "Th ese procedures so me tim es de la y a report but · we fee l t hey are esse nti al be-' cau se our facls must be correc t" Ha mmarbe rg says. pointing oul that Amn es ty's c redibil ity is th e COl'e of it s work . Every major report is sent to th e Governmen l involved befor e re lea se - inilially thi s was no t don e - and "we tell th e m that their response will be pub-

Iished along with th e reporl. " But Hammarberg' says, somewhat ruefully , the respo nse is 50-50. and usually poor. Perhaps some countries are to be embarrassed to respond. On hi s third visit to India his firs t vi sit was in 1 971, th e second in 1977 , both exci tin o yea rs he admits - Hamarbe r~ a rri ved from th e Ph i lipp in e~ wh ere aft e r 14 yea rs of Em e rge ncy . i Ilewd a rr p.s ts. tort ure a nd ·'salvagi ngs".th e Philippin e eq ui va le nt of "e ncoun le rs," the Aquino governme nt aske d hi s adv ice 011 c.ons titut iona.l sa fe·guards for hu man rights. T he main problem in India in Ha mmarberg's view is th a t although the re is no policy of re pression or suppression of human rights. there is torture in poli ce sta tio ns. so me times follo wed by death s. Wh ere serious investiga tions of s uch ha p· penings should be ca rried out , th ey arc nol. But he feels these violati on s arc beca use of ne· glect , not policy. The neglect, however, is very dee p. Mr Am nns lv dup.s no t sm, Amllr.stv's ha(lr. cI succ:ess llS 's u c:C(~s~ but ril lil r. r. i1 fai lu l'l!. up.c lI sn tlw Iw (:d 1'01' Aill nes ty's work is grr:a t()r now til (l n it was ~5 .vnars ilgO. Amn r.s ty will recogn ise it s S ll C(;()SS onl y w hf'1l it s wo rk is not n ~~e d p. d .•

Amnesty's concerns in India

n its Annual Repo rl for 1985 . dre w a tt ention to th e info rm a tio n it had rece ived from nea rl y all Ind ian stat es th a L cri mina l suspec ts a nd politi c.a l pri so ne rs W(He tortured especia ll y in Andhra Prades h a nd Pun jab. Re (Jor ts of dea ths in .po li ce c us tody as a res ul t of tortu rr. were frequen t. Amn es ty also wrotP. to th e Chief Min is ters uf' West Bp.nga l. Rajas th an a nd Ta mil Na d u r.al lin g for ju d icia l (~ n q uiri es in to such cases. Ma ny of Amnes tv's co n cern~ re la ted to th p. sta te of Punjab For insla n c (~. all June 14 , 1 0 84. i I tp. lexp.d thp. Prime Min ister. acknowledging thilt thn govp.rnlllP. l1 t had faced sp. rio us prob1 (~ 1l1s of in lr.rnal securi tv in Pun jab il nd asking whet he-r th e G.fi IJO pflup lr. reported lv ane. ted wo uld be chargp.d ~ith spe· cific c rimill(l l offe nces or reo leHsnd. It urged the re lease 01 fuur AkH li I)HI leadp.rs a rres tp.d under Ihe NSA dll ring o r a ft e r the a rmy ilc ti o n in th e Go lden T '~ lTI pl ~) - in cl udin g th e pa rt y 's pmsidp. nt - w ho had apparent ly 11 01 bp.p. n involved in violr. nce. Am nes ly nl su took no te of repo rt s Ih a t 28 ch ildre n aged bp.tw een four a nd 12. wh o had bp.p. n i1 fres ted a l Ih e tim e of th e Jlln e a rmy ac tion . we re be in g dr. tllin ed ill Ludhi a na Jail. On 2 1 Sepl e mbe r. Ih e Supre me Co urt orde red th e imm edi a te rp. lease of fuu r wom e n and 22 c h i Id re n aged be t wee n one a nd 1(j. s ta ti ng th a t it was ob vio us th a i th e wo men an d c hi ldren III Li st be dev ot p.es 'anel pil grim s vi silin g th e Go ld e n Tp.mp le wh o had bee l1 cau ght in th e act ion th a t too k pl ace o n 5 June . Amn p.s ty said th ese re ports confjrm (~ d its fea rs th a t inn ocenl peopl r.. w ho m it consid e red to bp. pri so ne rs of co nscie nce. we re am o ng those a rrested a t th e Go ld e n Te mpl e.

I Amn es ty

Deaths in Custody Early this year, Amnes ty also publish ed a major report co ncerning 'Dea th s in Poli ce Cus tody ' a ll eged ly as a result of tortu re or shooting in 1985-86 . It s la ted th a t dozens of s uch deaths in cus tody have been report ed eac h year. (For exam pl e. in Andhra Pradesh . seve n cases of dealhs in po li ce c ustod y were reported between 1 Jan uary 1985 a nd 31 May 1985 . where death was all eged ly due to to rture. In Dece mb er 1985 . two men . a rres ted on s uspi cion of involvement in crimina l activiti es. died , all eged ly followi'ng

torture in poli ce station s in Ke rala. In many cases the victim s we re repo~t e d to have rece iv ed multi p le injuri es. s ustai ned whil e in de tention . Re po rt s co me to Amn es ty from nea rl y all In dia n sta tes. irrespect ive of wh e th e r th e state is ru led by th e Congress(I) or by an oppos itio n party. epor ts of dea th s in cus toco ncern both peop le arn~ s t p.d on susp icion of havi ng commi tt ed cri m inal uffences . as we ll as Ihose arrested in connection wi lh al leged pol itical activ il ie . parti('lJlariy . those invo lving violp.n l acts. In th e abuv(-) repo rt. Am nes ty gives i1vai lab le de tail s abou t seven c:ases of d(~ a th s in jJo li ce c ustody rp.po rt ed d uring 1985 and lanuary 1986 w hi ch concern persons re po rt ed to have been actively invol ve d in po liti ca l ac:l ivit ies a nd. in one rece nt casp.. a civil libe rt ies ac tivis t wh o. acco rdin g to th e s ta te gove rnlll en i c:on e rn ed. was also in vo lve ci in politi ca l acti viti es. Th ese cases we re fro m th e s tat es of Andhra Prades h. Bih a r a nd Punjab. and th e Union territo rv of De lh i. One s uc h exa mpl e wa s that of Daljit Sin gh of Delh i. On 24 Ja nu a ry 1986. Dal jil . a 27 year old Sikh fro m 674 Milita ry Road. An a nd Pa rbat di ed in poli ce cus tody . Accordin g to re po rts in th e Ind ia n press he was a rres led in conn ection wit h a llega tion s Ihat he had harboured two a ll eged S ikh x tre mi sts . Reac tin g to th e contradi c tory press re port s a bout th e arres t and death of Daljit in c ust ody. Amn es ty was con ce rn ed tha t Ih ere was a possibi li ty that Daljit Singh may have di ed as a rp.s ult of injuri es inflicted upon him during int e rrogati on betw p.e n the tim e w hen h e was appa rent ly tak en into un ac knowledged de ten ti on late on January ·t5. 1986 and hi s death on th e e\1'&l1i ng of 24 January. and not as a result of high bl ood pressure a nd as thma as th e poli ce claimed . Am nes ty was aware "th a t s teps 'had reportedly been tak e n by th e Addjtional Chi ef Metropo litan Magistrate to invesligate hi s dea th .... (but) it was important th at a full in quiry by an ind epende nt judicia l a uthority be in stitut ed and th at th e findings of such an inquiry be publi shed in their entire ty a nd th a t both pos t mortem repo rts be mad e availabl e to his relati ves".

R dy.

mn es ty referred to th e Court 's observation th a t in th esecasesofc ustody dea th s th e responsible po'li ce oft en escape persecution and con viction for lac k of evidence . It ca ll ed for an a mend ment of the law of ev id ence. Although th e hold ing of magisterial enquiries in a ll .cases of deaths in po li ce cus tody is mandatory und er Sec. 17€ of the Crimina l Procedure Code , suc h enquir ies a re not a lways he ld. In the Punjab, for ex-. ample, seve ral cases have been repor ted during the latter part of 1984 where persons allegedly

A Supreme

Citation for the Nobel prize awarded to Amnesty in 1977 "The world has witnessed an increasing brutalization , and internationalization of violence, terrorism and torture .. ..... Through its activity for the defence of human worth against degrading treatment, violence, and torture , Amnesty International has contributed to securing the ground for freedom, for justice, and th ereby also for peace in the world."

di ed in police or arm y custod y withoul inques ls hav ing bee n held . Relatives allege that no record of th e a rres t was kept and th a t no post-mort em was carri ed ou t. Cases hav e also bee n report ed in w hi ch t ~ e bod y, sometim p.s with multiple injuri es. was handed over by poli ce to re la ti ves. who we re the n as ker! to sign sta te ments th at the dea lh WilS due to u icide. Amnes ty also added th a t in a ma jorit y of cases of dea ths in custody. magisteria l enq uiri es were car ri ed ou t by execut ive magist rate. and th e refore were subjec t to co nl rol by the gove rnme nt. When he ld. magisteria I e nquiries inl o dea th s of de tai nees are o /'t p.n not conclus ive be· ca use. since th e person died in po li ce custo Iy. independen t evidence is hard to obtain. In nea rly il ll cases th e magi stra te m us t de pend on th e po li ce to inves ti gate all ega ti ons affecting me mbers of th ei I' ow n forces . In th ose cases in whi ch magis terial e nquiri es fou nd th at dea ths .in c us tody were th e res ult of police bruta.1il y. re po nsi bl e poli ce we re usua ll y s uspen ded from d ut y or tra nsfe rred. T hey we re alm os t ne ve r s ubj ec ted t ~ crimin al proceed ings and con victed . Int eres tin gly . Amn p.s ty also e mph as ized th a t th e gove rn ment of Indi a was signa lory Lo a n umber of inte rn a tion al Con ve ntion s re leva nt 10 th e prohi bition of torturp. and cru el and inhum an trea tm e nt impl ying th e refore th a t Ih e gove rnm en t th ese was violatin g commitm enls.

Amnesty adopts Indian academic Early Ihi s yea r. Amn es ty adop tp.d 01'. K. Balgopal , Ge neral Secre ta ry or th e An d hra Prad es h Civil Liberties Comm ittee. as a prison e r of conscience. Dr. Ba lgopa l. a lecturer in Math ema ti cs at th e Kakaiya Un ive rsity. Warangal . was arres ted on November 16, 1985. Amnes ty expressed concern a t th e possibi lity that Dr. Balgopal's arrest may have been prompted by his civil libe rti es activities' rath er th an hi s invo lvement in a conspiracy to murd e r Sub Inspector Reddy and oth e r eve nts, as th e poli ce all eged. Amnesty was especially anxiou s th a t a case agains t Dr Balgopal und e r the T errorist a nd Disruptive Activiti es (Preve ntion) Act 1985, had bee n fil ed and th a t he may face tri al under its provisions. The Act permits one year de te ntion without tri al in circumstances which make it extre mely difficult to obtain baiL Additiona ll y it s tipulates tri al in ca me ra without th e disclosure of the identity of witnesses and restricted appea l procedures. Am nesty was further concern ed that if a pe rson is convicted of involveme nt in mu rder under Sec. 3 of the Act. the imposition of the dea th sentence was mandatory . (Balgopal bas been subseq uen tl y re leased). .

Sunday 15-30 June 1986

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Mem

Nihang s bizarre a true story as I have ever read . And rarely another as beautifully written . A young Oxbridge type English girl who is a landscape architect lusts to see the world . All she has is in her haversack . Apart from a change of clothes, she has a pen and note-book . She has very little money. So she tra vels by bus or trai n. eats whatever she can get , sleeps w he reve r sleep ()vertakes he r. In th e park. a d harmsa la or a gurdwara. She arrives in Ca lcutta . After trudging round ba zaa rs s he finds a gurdwara in Ho wrah which has a large dormitory where anyone ca n stay fo r thre e days a nd nights and ge l fre e food from th e langar. Here sh e run s into Prilam Singh , an opium addic t, a smu ggler, who ha s bee n in jai l in Pakistan. He is now a reformed chara cter and works as a sevadar (se rvitor). He h as become a Nihang. wears a ma ssi ve blue turban and carri es a three fee t long kirpan. ca nnot speak a word of Engli sh. T he English girl does not know a word of Punjabi. It is love at first sight. Not. as you might s uspect, lust for sex ual intercourse , but a mysterious uncommuni ca ble attachment for each other. It so unds like th e story of Tarzan . Th e Ape Man was tau ght to spea k by hi s w hit e girl : "Me Tarzan , yo u Jane" . The longhaired, long-bearded Nihang is lik e wise ta ught Engli sh by th e girl: "You Jungli , I Sarah Lloyd ." Sarah tries to prob e into lungli's (the na me she ha s given to Pritam Singh) mind: "Whatever did he see in me ? For I had com e, fair haired , blue eyes, a crea tu re from an unknown wo rld , dropping like a genie into his familiar ex istence. Dif-

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fere nt habi ts , differe nt va lu es, differe nt a tti tu des." Month s la ter wh en the y a re livin g togeth e r in his vill age as man and wife wi thout being married . sh e asks lun jli what had drawn him towards her w hen th ey had first met. He rep li ed nRive ly. '" saw a girl. all alon e. No moth er; no fath e r: no re lative; no fri end. She was thousand s of mi les from her home land. Ye t s he wasn 't afra id . She looked happy." San-l h Ll oyd co ntinu es: "I have hea rd it sa id tha i peo ple fall in love not with a perso n , but with a qu ali ty th ey lack but wou ld li ke to possess. My ini tial attracti on to lungli had been precise ly th a t: a mong th e things I admired abo ut him. li vin g by instinc t and supre me gen eros ity came hi gh on th e list. Tho ugh bei ng so different in th ese respects we gradually weakened what we lov ed in th e oth e r. lungli began to th ink things out, and I absorbed his sorrow." Jungli returns to his village near Amritsar, Sarah Lloyd con tinues her travels . After a few

weeks in Bangladesh, seeks out her Jungli in his village. It is then that the love affair is consummated: "After a week of being together 24 hours a day. the relationship did become ph ysica l. It was inevitable," writes Sarah . "I had tried to preve nt it for. quite apart from anything else , Jungli 's religion prohibited sex outside marriage. 'You have been baptised,' I re mind ed him in my falt e rin g, ungrammatical Punjabi. 'It won 't do.' I respected th e Sik h faith a nd it s mora l cod e. Wo men were suppose d to be trea ted as s iste rs". Oh o ne or two wo n't ma tt er. he rep lied off- !handed ly ." Tne love -affa ir was doomed to fai l. lung-Ii cou ld do no bell er th an take odd-jobs as gra nthi a t d ifferent gurdwaras or try a nd run a dhooba o n th e Gran d Trunk Road. Sa ra h goes with him wherever he goes. S hares hi s com pany. s uffers be ing beaten by h im when h e is dru.nk, cooks for him . washes his cloth es a nd nurses him in sick ness. She desc ribes th e bea t and dus t. the squ a lor a nd stenc h of ope n sewers along which th ey have th eir s ha ck, th e haza rd s of defeca ti ng in th e open with snakes. scorp ions and rats craw ling about. Their int e rmin ab le quarrels be tw ee n membe rs of jungli 'sjoint family, th ei r neigh bou rs a nd {he s tupidity of people wors hippin g libidinou s sants who make reli gion into a busin ess. She po rtrays her cha rac ters and the Punjab cou ntrys id e wit h th e finesse of a portrait pai nt e r a nd a landscape artis t. I ca nnot recall anot he r trave logue o n In dia as well written as Sarah Lloyd's An Indian Attachment (Futura)

indu lege nd says that th e gods showe red fl ower pe tals all over Ullarak ha nd in ce lebration of th e love of Savitri amI Sa tyava n and that is how the "Na nd an Kanan ", the Va ll ey of Flowers. came into be ing. Accord ing to a not her lege nd th e gods were celebra ti ng the re vival of Laks hman. broth e r of Ram. from wounds rece ived in ba ttle. A third version attributes th e fl ora l ri ch es to th e re joicin g of th e gods at a Pand ava vi c tory when th e bl oody battl efie ld was transformed into a carpet of flow e rs. Trekke r. so ldi e r and schol a r Man Mohan Sharma , au thor of several books on th e Himalayas, tell s th e reader a ll this a nd much more in hi s book The Vo lley of Flowers (Vision Books, New Delhi 1985, 128 pages, Rs 95 / -). Sharma knows th e Va lley and the whol e region of Uttarakhand in th e Cent ral Himalayas through 'his feet which have carried him on man y journeys in this magnifiKhushwant Singh cent mountain landscape with its many rivers, dramatic gorges and its wealth of wild ffowers of every variety. Described as "A Traveller's Guide" this is inremarkabl e that you were able deed a welcome and practical to actuall y establish a relation- guidebook to anyone visiting ship with him inspite of all the the Valley of Flowers and the cultural differences and obsta- Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib des you encountered. hidden in the Zanskar Range. .. Reading a book like your 's, But more than just a guidebook , the-fe is always a temptation to the slim volume makes interpaSil judgment instead of just esting reading for anyone interaccepting it for what it is. But is ested in the myths and legends is difficult to resist the tempta- of this region , of which there tion of doing just that since you are legion, connected as it is yourself are so disarmingly self- with the Ramayan, the critical about the doubts that Mahabharata and with its Own might be raised about yo ur ex- local fol.kfore . ploitation of lungli as a way of Although known well to the feeling Inqia in your bones. local Tolcha Bhotias the Valley Perhaps you overstate your of Flowers was 'discovered ' for using him and his dependence, . others in the mid 19th century attachment and helplessness- when Major Edward Smythe, about you . Could it not be that an -Education Officer in the once you finally departed , it did army, first came on- its floral not take him too long ' to beauty and wrote about 'it. But it economise on his emotions and was 'his namesake' Frapk Y sense of hurt. If he was capable Smythe, one of six British of materialistic, even sexual mountaineers ·who ascended .austerity, .as you suggest hewas, Mount Kamet in 1931 and' de-. might he not have also been .ca- cided to explore the moun~ains pable of restraining self-pity near the source ' of the and a feeling of rejection? · Alakananda imd Bhagarithi, You know him be'lter and who rediscovered the valley It:Jight also know what has be- and -put it on the travellers' come of him. Could he be lan- map. To Frank Smythe it was "a guishing in an Indian jail .. hav- valley of peace .and perfect ing been picked up by the beauty where the human spirit security forces as a potential may find repose." errori ?!. B.M.

A letter to the nihang's mem Dear Sarahji, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your book "An Indian Attachment". What was most appealing about it was its honesty and straighforwarndness. Your choice of nick-name lungli ~ for Pritam could perhaps be misunderstood . But then you have to be rustically Punjabi to understand that Jungli can sound both pe jorative and endearing, or rather a teasing mixture of both. If I were you , I would not worry too much about like ly criticism from smug left or right wing ideologues. who will probably detect vestiges of a white colo-

nial mentality in your manner of addressing your beloved Nihang. Jungli , I'm sure , was the right word , for Pritam or beloved would have been too preten~ tious and rather difficult to fit .the finite space of , your time capsuled relationship. From your Staffordshire cottage, you would have regretted calling him 'beloved '. You didn 't get the sympathy you craved for from him and you didn 't give him any from your side , which is fair enough. It is difficult for urbane Sikhs like me to appreciate or under. stand what Nihangs like Jungli are about. So it was all the more

"/;,p~""'') U NTAI N The .~ioneen of Himalayan

tre~•.

Iunsle lodse- anel- wildlife camp.

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IN. ~)IA

1/i Rani. Jhansi ~oad NEW DELHI. 110 055

' Phones: 771055; 731075, 777483, ~23QS7, 521~32 . T-elex: M-6301611tEK IN

Sunday 15-30 Tune 1986

The valley has attracted many people since Smythe's Book 'The Valley of Flowers ' was published, too many in the recent years of popular tourism, so that in fact the Valley was 'closed ' for some time because vandalism threatened its survival. It has now been declared a National Park and one hopes th at thi s will not just be an em pt y nomenclature . Th e re are two routes to the Va ll ey and Hemkund , on e via Garhwa l, th e other through Kumaon , both co nv erging a t Kam a Pra yag, the conflu e nce of th e Alakananda a nd the Pin dari rivers. Sharm a describes both , givi ng a littl e background abou t the pla ces e nro ute. inse rti ng ,snippets of h is to rica l informa tion . desc ribing the birds. the trees and th e kind of scenery to expec t. and add ing th e appropri a te folklore whi c h he has obVioD utud ne ied. WIshes tha t the a uth or had included more maps . There are jus t two . one a very sketchy affa ir giving th e rout e from Rishi:· es h 10 Hemkund, anot her with th e trekk ing routes aro und th e Va ll ey of Flowers. But as he describes the journey th e reader would like to follow him on a map. w hi ch is impossib le. On both rou tes th ere are places renow ned for th e ir beau ty or th ei r re li giou s conn ec tion s. The Ga rh wa l rou te goes throu gh De hra Dun , Haridwar and Ri shik es h, the Kum aon one from th e charming hi ll sta tion of Ranikhet to Ka usan i with its unsurpassed view of th e vast Himalayan range from Kedarnath to Api , a nd to Bhages hwar. All along the rest of the journey from Kama Prayag to Gobindghat, from wh ere the real tre kking starts , the author entertains the reader-traveller with a variety of legends , but one would like to see a little more description of the scenery which is amongst the most beautiful in the country. But from Gobindghat onwards there are no complaints. Sharma describes the flowers , the vegetation, the details of th e route, along with some of the festivals which take place in the villages. Songs and stories are also included in the text and the author gives the reader a glimpse of the li fe of the villagers which the traveller passing through would never see. . Hemkuno Sahib, Lokpal Lake as it was known through the Ramayan tradition-the ancient Lakshman Temple stands near the Gurudwara-has a chapter devoted to its history . Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, described the lake in his Vochitro Notok as a place where he had meditated in a previous reincarnation and Sharma describes how devotee Bhai Soh.a n Singh trekked 'through this difficult terrain until he came on the clear blue waters of this glacial lake on the shores of which stands the Continued on page 7

:The

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The Art of Healing · Pictu res by San iay Mit ra

.. "

Historical events; pleasant, ugly or traumatic they leave their own peculiar impressions on the minds of children. They get embedded in layers of consciousness , finding expression in multitudinous ways in the course of a life time. The events of 1984 were no exception, neither were the part-orphaned children of the carnage. Many of these children now live in Delhi's Tilak Vihar with their widowed mothers and other relations. Life for these children has been a collage of fires, crowds, clubbings, death , survival, HOPE and COURAGE. Lovleen Choudhry , an artist from Poona and th e Nishkaam Sikh Welfare Council have been working w ith the children in a humble attempt at th e art of h ealing.

III usions tha t are Eyelids H

uman relations are fragile . They do not s tand much scru tin y. They have to be taken on faith . Res traint and self-deception are basic al loys that make our rela tions work. Illu sions th a t support our se lf- estima tion are so necessary in life. These are th e eyelids without which ihe li g ht of truth is so unbearable. True. life is a lillie less honest t h us , but it is far more endurab le. We have to give ourse lves a sense of purpose, and nothing must be done to dist urb our faith in that pu rpose. This gi ves a sense of worthiness in one's being. Other. musl s upport us or else we lose our sense of belonging. and life th en is shorn of all value. This is the psyc hologica l co re of 'Muhaz BaLa Muhaz'. A simple s tory of a n army captain 's dea th: its news reaching his family , fo llow ed by the dead bod V ""'hich is remated with mili-tarv honours. is the framework ~f thi s novellete . The ac1ion takes place in about · seven davs of actual time . The significance of the s lory, howeve r. covers hopes, fears and va lu es cu ltivated over generations. The simple friendships , ri valries, tri u mphs . egos of people liv ing and working in the Punjab countryside are all evoked in thi s story. Provocation indeed is the cen tral prlnCipte of Deep's narrative mode. He conjures up a variet v of characters , si tua tions. tensio-ns. There is marvellou~

restraint in expression. The detail s are apt. meaningful. No thing is redundant or extraneous. The s tory moves at various leve ls-temporal. spatial and psychological. Short poi'nted use of flashbacks weave a com plex textu re which reveals the complexity of hum a n behaviour. o thing is taken for glanted. The eldes t son. jarnail. has a life of his own and ye,t respects th e as pirations of his father. The two 'younger sons open ly declare their ohoices . The Wife is no more wil lin g to be bullied, her so ns have grown up. The' fundamental desire among all the c haracters is to live their 'l ives to the full , even when aware of many obs.t acles that lie on the way. They will assert themselves given even an outside c hance . Such is the basi c trait df Punjabi character.

What as tonishes one in 'Mu haz Bata Muhaz' is that despite it s brevity, it encompasses li fe in its vast breat h and varied dj,mensions. The story deve lops 'a t a pace w hi c h is br~ k a n d gradual ly acce lerat es to a crescendo. Th.e no,v ell e te is built. in ,th e manner of a typica l musi ca l co mpos ition in whic h each stroke is ca refu ll y assimilated in th e total design. Deep's finest achievement in this novel is the cri:iation of a physical and mental atmosphere with sensi tiv e use of local isms without in anyway imped ing th e 'narrative flow. Death is the pivot of life among Punjabis . The deathawareness and . the event of death start a who le c hain of lifeprocesses even while concluding some of them . This work of ,fiction is ye t another instance of 1he pervasive Punjabi c ultural ethos. Pointed . poignant and rich in its human and e motional content. 'Muhaz Bata Muhaz' by Iq ba I. Deep , with its small ca nvas GUt. wide range and reach. is an important event· in Punjabi fi ction.

B S Rattan MU.h az Bata Muhaz , a novellete in Punjabi by Iqbal Deep; Nanak Singh Pustakmala: Amritsar Pages: 94 Price: Rs. 20/-.

THE VALLEY OF FLOWERS Confinued from pa ge 6

newly constructed gurudwara . mon birds to watch for , a glossaThe four months the sh rine is ry is an additional advantage open du ring the year sees thou- and a se lect b ibliography prosands of m en, women and c hil - vi des follow-up for those who Qren pa yi_ng their r'espects "and succumb to the Uttarakhand bathing ~ n th e icy waters aIter ench a ntm ent. th e tough climb of e ight kilomeUn fortuna telY' for a guidetres ovel'..a.gradi-e nt·'Of 5000 fe er·-- book on an area like this good photograp hs are essential. Not from Caggaria. Babes in arms and grey- ha ired ancients are ,on ly has Sha rma given us too. few but th e reproduction of ,amongst the fa it hful. I photographs in th e book is exThe last part of th e book is tremely d·isappointing. The best devoted to practica l details. photograph is the outside jacket Travel information is given with ' its profusion of flowers about ho w to get there. where to found in th e Valley. If the au.stay,There is information about thor could have included a few clo th es and equipment, about co lour photographs ofindividu al flowers and had drawings of food to take. health precautions, permits etc. The vocab ulary of th e res t it wou ld have added to the ch a rm of the book. Perhaps ' useful Garhwali words a nd phrases" is a thoughtful addi- 'this co uld all be rectified in the tion for the foreign traveller, .next edition, for a practica l perhaps even for indigenous guidebook like this to this beauones! A special section of inforliful and fascinating part of the mation for trekke rs gives even country is certainly an impor- , more details, including the diftant contribution : And p'e rhaps ferent tracks. Finally the amaa soft-cover edition would be teur botanist has a list of some easier on the pursestrings of enflowers found in the Valley , th_e thusiastic·trekkers for whom Rs birawalcher the names of com95/ - is a rather steep price.

cI~~~iHulii"i The Spirif of Excellence

Viewpoint :the

FOrum GazetlC Persecution Fear and Migration

We the People of a Federal India Inder Mohan

There are many kinds of migration . Hindu fears in Punjab are echoe d by Migration from drought, hunger and Sikh insecurity in Haryana , Delhi and war; or migration in search of employ- other states comprising the northern ment, adventure. a new life in a new Hindi "heartland" of th e country. The world. carnage of November 1984 has not been The migration now occuring before forgotten. Neither has it been forgotten our eyes of Hindus leavi ng Punjab and that those guilty of the ca rnage ha ve not Sikhs heading for the "Land of Five Riv- be en 'brought into the net of the apparaers" is another kind of migration. Thi s tus of law and order. The lesson has migra tion is necessita ted by socia l and been learnt that sometimes th e State has po liti ca l oppression. This is migration its own reasons for appearing to condon e ca used by a sense of persecution and killing and a breakdown of law and fear. order. Many Sikhs believe that there can There can be, and indeed there are, be a repeat of November 1984. The irony individuals and communities who sur- is that many who died in that carnage vive on strong persecution comp lexes, were supporters of th e same Congress-I caused b y real or imaginary fears. In th e whose cadres massacred them. current phenomenon of Hindu-Sikh mi It would be naive to believe that ingra tion , the fears are real. Both commu- tolerance. fundamentalism and terrornities share the e_xperience of being ism can be countered by a State which is terrorised and held' up for ransom . In seen in the public eye as being increasboth cases the State, at the central or re- ingly subject to the same tendencies. gionallevel, has been left standing, una - Dissidence from stated policies and obble to fulfil its responsibility to protect jectives. whether in Chandigarh or its citizens. It has been noticed that ele- Delhi , within Akali or Congress-l ranks, ments in the political and administra- cannot but路 play into the hands of forces tive hierarch y are actually unwilling to inimical to a democrati c India , which intervene on behalf of innocent, law- thrives on its "unity in diversity". It is abiding citizens. amply clear that dissidence against the However, unlike the centre's cul- spirit of th e Accord is a disadvantage pability in arousing a general anti-Sikh sharedlby certain factions both within hysteria and thus accentuating the com- the Akali fold and the ruling party in munity 's fears and alienation , the New Delhi. Barnala Government has npt encourPunjab today and Delhi 1984 are aged a hate campaign against the minor- grim reminders that those elements ity community. In fact , it has made a 路which militate against a democratic and positive effort to persuade the Hindus to humane social and political ethos are return to their homes. Yet, the recent not a monopoly of anyone region or poexperience of both communities has led litical party in the country. Unless the them to mis-trust the State and its agen- political parties and citizens' cies, or at least elements within them. organisations at various levels can live Hindus in Punjab have adequate up to their democratic and nationalist reason to doubt the ability, if not the in- credentials, the 路 struggle against fundatention of the state government to pro- mentalism and terrorism, religion or tect their life , property, civil liberties state-inspired as the case may be, could and democratic rights . Not only Hindus, turn out to be a losing one. but as the tragedy of Jandiala shows (see Punjab Group Initiative lead story page 1), even Mazbi and nonGiven the stakes in Punjab, there is keshdhari Sikhs find it difficult to have an all-round need to rally the forces of faith in the government's capability to sanity and unity across party and com protect them . And yet the Akalis under munal lines. It would be fatal to lose Barnala were returned to power with an It is in pursuit of its belief that it is hope. unprecedented majority because of the 'never too late' that the Punjab group in support of Hindus and "scheduled caste Delhi held an informal all-party consulSikhs". tation recently to find a way through the The role of the Badal-Amarinder impasse. The meeting was attended by led dissidents in weakening the Akali representatives of the Congress-I, Dal Government has also impeded its efforts to- tackle the terrorist threat more Janata, BJP, CPI, CPI-M , the Lok Dal and effectively. Th e dissident legislators the Akali Party. It was agreed that an allfrom the violence-prone areas have not party public meeting would be thought it fit to visit their constituencies organised in Delhi soon, followed by a to restore confidence in the minority common programme to boost the confisections of their electorate. They simply dence and morale of the two pass the buck on with the simple communities. Unless the narrow exigencies of proposition-"This is the government 's party poliilics can be set aside and united responsibility, not ours". And they go on action is taken to restore faith in the poto add , "We are irrelevant". They may be and administrative system, time litical right ; for their reservations about their could indeed be running out for a demoown relevance could soon turn into a cratic solution in Punjab. self-fulfilling prophecy.

federal system of Government is one in whi c h seve ral Sta tes unit e under a cen tra l authori ty a nd still remain independ e nt in int e rnal a ffairs. [n other words. federa l units are supposed to be an association of units th a t are largely independent. But federalism in the In dian system has been deliberately comp li ca ted. distorted even vulgarised . [t is so. because of th e compu lsive double sta n dards practised on the part of powers th a t be. particularly within the Ce ntre . In th eory we are supposed to be a federal repub li c s usta in ed by the five pillars of secu lari sm. socialism, democracy. an independent judiciary and an e lec ted parliament. [n practice we are being gove rned by a hi ghl y ce ntrali sed governmen t whose total auth orit y remains vested in the hands of one indi vidu a l and execu ted by a cote ri e of loyal and obedient se rvants. As regards th e s trong pill ars mentioned above. th e less said the beller. Religious fanaticism. obsc urantism and fundamentalism are being encouraged by th e Stat e. If this leads to a communa[ divide and ri oting. but serves narrow electora l interes ts of th e party in power. or of certain opposition parties at a given time , th e p retenders of "sec ularis m " could not care less.

Corrosion of Democracy De mocra cy is being corroded by a pre-plann ed poli cy of centralisation resulting in a unitary form of Government. Elections are fought with bla ck money supported by muscle power with no holds barred . exploiting every caste and communal factor. All this reduces th e conce pt of free and fair elections to a farce. Socialism has bee n made a hoax by ever growing pove rty , unemployment and by in creasing glaring social and economic disparities betw ee n a few haves and the multitudes of have-nots . Ju diciary and parliamen tary in s titutions are being eroded by co nferring wide powers to the executive, by appointing pliable members of th e judiciary, by manipu[ating elections and above all by imposing presiden tia l ordinances路 at frequent intervals to se rve the vested interests of th e S tate under the ga rb of "public interest". The latest example is 'the ordinance amending section 3 of Commission of Enqujry Act of 1952 in order not to sha re th e results of various enquiries with Parliament and the people . Had our rulers been honest regarding the es tabl ishmen t of a federal Indian Republic , quite a

Sunday 15-30 June 1986 m

number of our present day problems would e ith er have not arisen a t all or would have been resol ved long ago.

Article 370 or ins tance ever since application of article 370 was agreed upon in the case of Jammu and Kashmir State, it should have been logi ca ll y fo llow ed by giving minimum feasible regional autonomy to th e State. That would have resulted in interna l autonom y for th e people of Jammu and Lad akh. th e two principal sub-regions of' th e State. But instead the Centre has usually preferred intri gues to impose a government whi ch would be ll)anipula ted a nd have made s ubserv ient to it. Similarly, there have been s imultaneo Ll s covert attempts to change the c haracter of the population , particularly in th e va lley. by conve rtin g th e natural majority into an artificia l minority. In thi s respect th e BJP. RSS and all communa l e lements within th e ruling party have bee n co llu ding with each other. All s u ch intrigues have been successfu ll y resisted so far by the politically conscious peopl e of I&K and in oth er parts of the country. Nevertheless s uc h nefarious attempts to red uce the efficacy of a rticl e 370 have created avoidable hostility.

Distorted Campaign [n the context of Punjab a person no less than th e Prim e Minister of Inc1ia put across a totall y distorted version of th e Anandpur Sahib resolution throughout th e length and brea dth of th e co untry during his elec tion ca mpa ign in 1984 . had there .been a rational approach towards the Anandpur Sahib resolution keeping in view all its positive features , particularly its economic and socia l contents. in the context of a Federal Republic of In dia . th ere would have bee n peace and amity among the Hindus and Sik hs of Panjab. Terrorism and extremism would not have found a breeding ground. This experiment is still worth pursuing. Contin ued on page 10

_o~p_e_n_F_o_r_u_m_____________________ ~~ _______________________________ Morcha . In order to deteat the Centre the Akalis compromised with Sik h路 extremists using 'them as a weapon. This political response to socio-economic cont radictions has consid erably weakened the democratic movem ent in the State and te mporarily pushed central issues in to th e background . Th e Pu njab Accord the rfore does not touch these issues and ca nnot provide a lasting solution to th e Punjab probl e m. The ruling e lite wants to keep the Punjab pot hot. to boil over whenever th e need arises. a dange rous game which both the Co ngress(l) a nd th e Akalis a re p lay in g in th e Sta te.

ALL IS NOT LOST Sucha Singh Gill

Positive forces still eXIst

he Punjab situa ti on is becomin g in creasingly a larming as the communa l divide be tw een the Hindu and Sikhs widens and communal alienation is converted into communal tension in severa l pla ce. The All India Sik h_ Students' federa ti o n (the AlSSF). Damdami Taksal and Sikh terrorist organisations w hi c h re prese nt th e o rgan ised for ces of Sikh communa li sm, and th e Hindu Shiv Sena. Hindu Su raksha Sam it i and Punjab Rashtriya Hin du Sangathao. their Hindu equivalents. have gained noticeable cred ibility among both commu niti es parti c ularl y in urban areas. At Gurdaspur, Batala , Jalandh ar. Hos hi arpu r. akodar, Patiala . Muktsar. th ere has been open co nfrontation. At th e political leve l Sikh communalism is supported by th e Uni ted Akali Dal, some sections o f Akali Dal (Longowal) a nd sec tions of Congress (I). Hindu communa l bodies' ha ve th e s upport of Congress(l ) and at some pla ces of BJP cad res. The social fabri c of t he Punjab is threat e ned . wit h co mmunal ha rmon y th e first casualty. Killin gs of innoce nt persons, mostl y Hindus , but sometimes Sikhs , hav e increased . Un targe lled killings. owned to by Sik h terrorist organisations. are meant to create te rror. spread com munalism and strength e n th e secessionist

fo rces . Most vic ti ms be lo ng to low e r middl e and workin g classes. Targelled killings aim a t po liti ca l oppo ne nts of seces s ion a nd comm unalism. Journalists a nd wri ters a re under threa t and man y are afraid to write against s uch for ces. The recen t declaration of Khali s tan and th e subsequen t developments h ave s trengthened s uch trends. T he restri c ti ve provis ions of th e law - Section 144. restriction s o n two w h ee lers, c urfews and ex te ns ive powers to police and paramilitary for ces have fai led to con trol th e s it uation and have resulted in s tate te rrorism . Not on ly has thi s added to th e prob lems of th e co mmon man bu t it has co ntribut ed to th e paralysis of democratic movements. In addition th e disease of communa li s m has afflic ted the S ta te administrative machin e ry , wh ich displays a clear c u't bia s for communa l forces . Forces o uts id e the Punjab , parti cularly the delibe rate policy of th e Congress(l) a t th e Centre and in Haryana have further co mpli ca ted th e deteriorating s itu ation . The nonimpleme nt a ti on of the Punjab Accord, ce nsus operations in th e Faz ikka-Abhor area and th e ea rli er holocaust in De lhi and ot her towns in Congress( l) ruled states have signifi cantly acce lera ted the process. A party whi c h talks loudl y a bout national unity a nd integrity has co ntributed fully to th e for ces

of secess ion and disinteg ration . Cri s is c rea to rs and c ri sis managers have played a decisive ro le in the growing Punjab trag~dy.

The bui lding up of th e c risis has three aspec ts. First, Punjab's two equally s trong tradi tions. of democratic m ovements on th e on e hand, and on th e other traditions of comm unalism and co mmuna l alienation, a te nde ncy furth e r stre ngth e ned by th e State's politi ca l processes. While Congress has fo ll owed th e po li cy of balanced comm unalism , ra th er than secu larism . the Akali Dal. in o rder to co nsolidate its politica l base. has increasingl y re li e d on a sectaria n Sikh approach and so s trength ened Sikh communa li sm . The role o f both politi ca l parties in equa ll y he inous.

Development di vides people T he second aspect of the cri sis is the country's cap ita li s t mode of deve lopm en t wh ich generates its own con tradi ctions. Ha vi ng e xperien ced the high es t leve l of capitalist deve lopment. par ti cul arly in agriculture, th e Punjab has manifested these contradictions in a mo re ar ti c ul a te manner. But such' contradi c tion s are bound to arise e lsewhere as is already happen ing in Haryana . A class of capitalist farmers hs b ee n c reated, with surplu ses at its . command , and a rising level of

expectation. T h is c l as~ demands a grea te r s hare in po lit Lca l power to promote its socioeco nomi c asp ira ti ons, a dema nd denied by the ruling class and party in power at the Ce ntre . On the other ha:nd a mass of poor peasantry also has a ri s ing leve l of ex pecra{ions bu t co upl ed wit h an e roding economic bas e. Its large f6rc.e 01 ed uca ted. unemp loyed' you th , no t ready towork on farms , ca nnot find s uit ab le emplo ym en t to imp rove family co nditions. Employment possib iliti es abroad a re virtua ll y sea led off. It is this ma npow e r unde r th e leaders hip of rich pea sa ntry wh ic h is crea tin g th e crisis in th e Sta te . The th ird aspect is the response to th e socio-economi c cont rad ic tion s.-O ne response is the Aka li Dal Morcha closely fo ll owed by the Bhara ti ya Kisan Union (I3KU) agita ti on. T he Akali Dal articu lated the peasants' demands mix in g th em up with re ligiou s demands of th e Sikh com munit y. The Congress(I) Sta te government and the Centre responded w ith ' appeasement of the religious demands. but nonaccommodation of the economic and politi ca l demands. This non-accommodation was supported by repressi ve measu res and engin eering of communa l alienation . The policy encouraged ex tre mi s t Sikh organisations and instigated communa l Hindu organisations to open ly oppose th e Akali

In con trast to growing com munal tension in urban areas. a vast mass of peasa ntry land less, agricultural workers and others in rura l are as a re not ye t communalised eventhough peasantry provides most of th e manpowe r to mi litan t Sikh bod ies. At vi ll age leve l Sik h peasa ntry have effective ly protected Hindu ne ighbours in numerous instan ces. But while a few famili es leaving villa ges in Amritsar dis trict fo ll owi ng terro ri st threa ts, provoke head lin es a.nd editorials in national newspapers . when a villge commu nit y 3ffective ly pesuades Hindus to rema in and live without fear . it is not consid ered "b i3" news. Simila rl y workers and a vast section of emp loyees in urban ce ntres remai n opposed to co mmun alism . These are forces which ca n be mobilized to decommunalise th e s itution . A vast m a jority of th e popul a tion is fr ee of com munalism . has acted respons ibly nd not permitt ed communal clas hes even under ex treme provocation both befo re and 'a fter Opera ti on Blues tar and th e November ho locaust. Peo ple have fac ed terro ri st a tt acks bo ld ly eve n w h en th ey are una rm ed. They ca ught and handed over to poi ice, terrorists in Ranik e and Ba hama nian vill ages and nea r Barnala to w n in Sangrur. at Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran and l3akh a tpur vi ll ages in Gurdaspur. Where co mmuna l Hind u organisatio ns co uld neith e r fa ce terro ri sts nor ca tc h th e m . th e co mmon peopl e did. Another importa nt indi cation of th e peop le's positi ve a llitude. parti cu larl y in th e case of rural people. was seen around Nakodar a nd Muktsa r where communal Sik h orga n isations tri e d to fo rce a peo pl e 's blockade on the Ba ta la pattern . The strategy failed because ofpopular opposition. In th ese sit uations th e' lead was taken by th e co mmon peop le influ enced by Continued on page 13

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Oddities and eccen trici ties of the Kinnock tour A 'FRATERNAL' VISIT AT ST A TE EXPENSE Nei l · and Gle nys Kinnock we re in India in May on a twowee k visit. He is th e leader of th e opposition in Bril a in and h eads th e Labour parl y; s he is a m e mber o f th e sam p. par ly a nd a sch ool leac h p. r in lh p. London s uburb of Bre nt. Th e r:o uple's host in Indi a was Arjun Singh. Fo r hi s lori r.a l reasons th e Bril is h Labour Part y ha s fra le rn a l rt'l la li ons w ilh lh e Indian Nati ona l Con gress. e ven though th a i party hCls now been rer. hrisl p. ne d lh o Co ngress-I nd i rn. Thp. fr a le rn a l re lntion s hip be tween Ih e tw o parli es is based o n a widespreCl d be li e f ill In dia as we ll as Brilain th a t In diCln in (h~ pe nd e n c ('l was ill gren t m ea su r (~ c1 e liven'ld by labour's generos it y. e ve n th o ugh it mi ght no t have been res ponsible for co nce ivin g Ih p. n e w na tion . There a re s uppoiied to be o th e r reaso ns for kin s hip re lations be tw ee n th e two parties . Both. it is sa id . s hare a co mmitmen t to socia li sm , a c lai m th nt wo uld not go un cha ll e nged wi th in bo th pa rti es. Whi le Labour's reco rd of compromise with th e rea lities o f big bu s in ess mi ght poss ibl y be less obvious, it would requin'! ra th (~ r a fe rtil e imagination to asc ribe a socia li s t o r scientifi c tempel- to Ra ji v Gand hi 's Co ngress-I. A more natural a ll y of In di a's ruling party would seem to be Reaga n 's co wbuy dispe nsa tion "\l ith its fizzv film -s tar r. u lturp. a nd gunb oa; dipl o ma cy. Ne il a nd C le n ys a ti l~ as t hinlr.d a t th e dissona nce in th e LabourCon gress re la ti ons hip by not spa rin g th a t ' Ma d Man Reaga n ' in t he i r ge ne ro us cri Iicism of th e American presid e nt. In Np. w De lhi's COllgrp.ss-1 c irc les th e re is ano th e r se nti mp.llta l reaso n for keep in g th e C:o ngress- La bo ur li aso n a li ve: It has ·no t b ee n forgo t ten th a t oldwor ld socia li s ts li ke Mi c hae l 1·'00 1. Kinnoc k's p re d ecessor. were a rd en t s uppo rt e rs of th p. Em e rge ncy be twee n 1975- 77. Tory or Labour, wh e n th e c hips are down , the id ea of pol iti ca l fr eedo m in the · dev e lop i-ng world turn s in to a luxury the Wes t can no t a fford : T here were ot her odd iti es' abou t th e Kinnoc k visit. A part y to party affa ir. it wa ·ne verth p.less the pro toco l di vision of th e Fore ign Officp.. w hi c h per-

We the People of a Federal India Con tinued fr o m page 8 How is it that in spite of the m yth having been float e d re gard.in g prosperity in Panjab and Harya na that there is ever~ growi ng un e mployment, along with a s teady increase in th e numbers of landless labourers s tri cken with ab ject poverty. Not on ly th at , th ese so ca lled prosperous States ha ve been infested with bonded labourers s ubjected to inhuman exploitation. This harsh realit y exists because th ere has always b ee n a shrill c ry for a strong Centre and concentra tion of politi ca l and economi c powers in th e hands of a c hosen fe w .

Sharing Eco and Political Power

Neil and Gtenys Kinnock in pre-British Mughal Dethi

Courtesy Statesman

form p.d all th e duties of majorInt o a li ght -hea rt e d d esc ription domo inst ead oflh e part y o ffi r.e. o f th e Indo-Briti s h re la ti onship. Ev e n th e Prp.s id e nt 's Est a le He f(~ l a t ed a s lor y a bo ut nonthre w in it s rp.sourr.es to mak e co mmuni ca ti o n be tw een two tl1P. Kinno c ks fep. 1 'a t hom e ' by drinking companions. a s tory p rov iding th e m an Ashoka-lion about two Welshm en in a pub e ns igned Eng lish lim o usin p. to w ho had been ben ding e lbows dri ve th em aro und in th e ca pitoge th p. r for yea rs. ta l. A sen ior m e mbe r of th e Every p.ve nin g tn e tw o Hi gh Commi ss ion s ta ff exWe lshm en ta lk ed abo ut eve ryplainp.d polit e ly th a t s uc h s ta te thin g und p.f th e s un . Lik e th e hosp it a lit y wou ld not havp. wea th e r, ru gby. c ri c ke t e rc, e tc. b e (~n prov id ed on a reci proca I Aflp. r twe nt y yea rs or so o f th e ir ba s is to th e lea d e r of th e opposire lationship, on e asked th e nth ti o n fro m Indi a on a visi t to Bril e r. "Joe yo u know, a il th ese a in - not eve n to frat e rn a l soyea rs o f m ee tin g, drinking, ta lk c ia li s ts! And no doubl in g: not once have yo u asked m e Buck ingham Pala ce wo uld no t how m y wife is", have re laxed it s s tiff uppe r-lip, ' Ra th e r sh a ken, the oth e r at least not in public. said. "Yo u know yo u are a bsoThe Co ngress- I and Covernlut e ly r ight. T e llm e how isyo ur m ent of In dia's a tt e mpt to wou wife?" th e Briti s h la bour lead er. apA t thi s th p. firs t on e a lmos t pea red to have made a n impa c t. s hout ed back: "N o, no. don ' t lust as M.i chae l Foo t gave. Mrs men ti on he r!". Ga ndhi a good c hit foil' th e e m e rNe i.l Kinnoc k too follow ed gency. Neil Kinnock a lso found u p' his s tory w ith no ment ion of himse lf , making s ta te ments any aspec t of Indo-Brit ish r e law hi ch his hos ts wou ld have tiDn s excep t te rrori s ts, th p. curliked to hear fro m hi m. Afte r a , re nt 'r ugby and c ricket brand o t toast to th e co u p le at a dinn e r a ntago ni sm' in re la tions bepar ty in the High Comm iss iontw ee n th e two countries. There er's .res idence. th e lea d e r o f th e was no mention of sa les o f mi liBritish oppos ition salli ed forth tary hardware, Wes tl and heli · copte rs , fert.i li se rs a nd pesticid es, mining eq Uipm e nt " 01' eve n th e fl1ture of the Gngli s h language in this count ry. It was an angle ges tu re on the part of the Brit isb Labour Party to say "t hank you for loo kin g after us so we ll " . . Jor· A tl east a co upl e of us a t th e d in ner who represented the Kirloska·r. Her-m e tic CGrnp ressors turbaned - bea rded species of D'a n foss Controls etc, India, d id we ll to keep stra ight 284 Netaj i Subhash Marg faces and a camou fl aged .upper Dar ya Canj . New Del hi -11 0002 liP. 8M,

Hindustan. Refrigeration Stores

Had th e Cen tre s ha red economi c and politi ca l pow e r w ith th e people o f Pan jab and Harya na o n th e basi s of mini- . mum region a l autono my , t!:J e re would have bee n vol unta ry and willing coo rdin a ti on coope ration be twee n a ll th e Ihree. India is one of th e ri c hes t countri es in the world in te rm s of natura l resources . Iro ni ca ll y, it s vas t millions re m a in one o f th e poorest in th e world . This is beca use of mi s mana geme nt o f reso u rces a nd lop-s id ed p la nning de ny in g th e peopl e th e ir · due. T he Sta tes a re brou gh t into th e pi c ture on ly wh e n the Ce ntre n eeds Lo pass on th e bu ck to th e m a t in conv e ni e nt or e mbarra ss ing mom e nts. Thi s bappens when bru ta I rep ress io n is le t loose on cons tantl y oppressed peo p le wh e ne ve r th ey ri SE aga in st social a nd econom ic in justice. Th e n th ese m a ll e rs ber:o me State subjec ts .

Identical Problems The probl e ms are Ide nti ca l in Sta tes lik e Bihar. Orissa, Madh ya Prades h , th e e ntire North Eas tern be lt. eas te rn UP and in fact a ll ove r th e co untry. Pove rty a nd abundance of na tu ra l resources pre vail sid e by sid e. Mass ~ t arva tion. sa vage e xploitation o f child la bo ur , une mpl oym e nt , la rge numbe rs of landl ess labo urers , regu la r sal e of girls and wOm'e n irf opeilmarke ls a re th e order of th e da y. Th e loca l people have 110 say in formul a tin g pla ns and sc he m es s upposed to be for th e ir w e lfare , what to say of th e ir proper impl e me nta ti on , w hi c h a l way ~ e vad es th e m . Th e ce ntral govern men t obsessed by its desin, to hav e a s tron g Centre seeks to put up yesme n ·a t th e he lm of affairs in s tat es a ft e r s tale. W her· e ve r it finds . an inconve ni e nt se lf res pect i n g, asse rtiv e a nd in 'depende nt Chi ef M inisterl his gove rnm e nt is dism iss_e a und er o ne false pre tex t or the ot h er. So fat the Cen tre and its henchmen in th e stat.es h ave bee n us,ll:rpingall the natural re- ·

so urces throu gh 'developmen · tal ' projects, which a re in variably mos t harmful to eco logy and human beings particularl y th e triba ls. The projects a re a lso kept under s trict ce ntra l control. Su ch a n app roa c h ha s consistently resulted in m ass di scontent, upsurge a nd at lim es militant actions on the part of th e peo pl e. Instea d o f tak ing a hum a n approach , the governme nts at th e Centre and in th e States resort to ruthl ess brutal repression aga ins t the peop.le wh o organ ise th e m selves to d e mand soc ial a nd eco nomi c jus tice , In thi s respect all int e rv e ntio ns by th e a rm ed forces , para-military troops and vario us pol ice actio ns have fai le r! to co ntrol the situation. Th e pi c ture wo uld have bee n differe nt if long over-due a utonomy had been gra nt e d to th e Stat es on th e ir regio nal basis. Not onl y th a t. th e Centre ha s been playing ano th e r tri ck aga ins t th e peo pl e a ll throu gh . Th e ir gen uin e re giona l aspirations for social ju s ti ce have bee n misint e rpreted, mi s re pre se nt e d and so ught to be wrongfull y mi xe d upwith paroc hi a li sm atld co mmu na li s m. Had th e S ta tes been left fr ee to mak e equitab le d is tributi on of th e ir n a tu ra l wealt h amo n g th e ir own people, their e moli ona l a n d political integrat ion with th e co untry as a w ho le would have take n pl ace with less s tress a nd te ns ion. In s uc h circums tances th e red un da nt foru m of th e Na ti ona l Integrati on Co un cil be ing u sed o r misused as a sh ow piece would not have be en needed . tth e same tim e , le t us be cl ear, th at to h ave a fed e ra l sys tflm of govern me nt a lon e will not be e no ugh. Th e re has to be decen tra li sa tion of po wer from . th e Ce n'tre Lo Sta tes, from Sta tes to distri c ts and from distr ic ts to v ill ages. Onl y th en , ca n th e peopi e be ex pec ted to pe rform the ir duti es towa rd s th e co untry prope rl y a nd thu s ju s tify their socia l a nd economi c rig ht s. Fina ll y, in order to gove rn a fede ra l sys tem s uccp.ssfull. y. e lec loral re fo rm s. are equ a ll y important. Tota l e limin a ti on of bl ack money pow er. musc le power and co mmun a l propaga nd a are a mu st. Albng wi th thi s, th e e lec tora l system wi ll a lso have to be c ha nged. E leclion s based on proport iona l representation co uld pro ve to be most effec Li ve in this respec t. Needless to say th at no 'sLrong Cen tre' ca n su rvive wi t hout s tro ng Sta tes . UI timateIy a s tron g Cent re and s trong S tates can both surv ive on ly when ge nuin e regional. eco-' nomk a nd social aspirations of the peop le have been adequate' Iy a nd jus tifiabl y mel .

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The Voyage of the Komagata Maru A glorious chapter of the freedom movement here is a colourful, exciting and eventful backdrop -to the story of the Komagata Maru: why and how its passengers left their nativ e Punjab: the ir attempt to enter Canad a in vain: the voyage back and th e police action that ki lI ed passengers when th ey arrived in Calc utta . A story cast in th e mould of adventure, revolution , assass ination. co unter-intel li gence, human sufferin g and tragi c rom a nce . The story begins in Punjab, th e home of a people known for their hflrdy fronti er spi rit, th e ir soldiering and farming sk il ls. Pioneers wi lli ng to have a go a t anyt hing. rt is [rom Punjab th a t India's minority comm unit y of turbaned and bearded Sikhs comes from. It is from he re th a t th ese people spread across th e world. Eas twards across th e Bay of Bengal and th e Pa ci fi c to Ca lifornia. Van cou ver and Westwards across th e Khyber Pass a nd Arabi an Sea to Africa, wes t As ia a nd Britain. All a long, thei r spiritu al cen tre con tinued to be th e Golden Temple in Amritsar. but their hom e became th e w hole world.

Above: Gurdit Singh (left) ready to go ashore with other passengers. Left: Hopkinson extreme right with other officials.

Punjab in turmoil At the turn of th e presen t cent ury. Punjab was in turmoil. Famines and plague had tak e n four million s liv es: la nd taxes were h igh and indebted ness rampant amongs t small farm hold ers . Murd ers over land disputes were common and th ere was much addi ction to opium and alcoho l. The Sikhs were in a rough , belligeren t and aggressi ve mood. They were angry with the British administration and ready to respond to the politics of terrorism , assassination and revolution .

Glory of the Raj It was also a time when the Raj was at the pinnacle of its glory . The British had transferred their seat of power from Ca lcutta to Delhi, and, in the tradition of their predecessors the Mughals, announced the building of a new capital. A few years earlier the most imperial of viceroys , Lord Curzon, had presided over a realm that the British seemed determined and indeed capable of ruling for . ever. In 1911 , their imperial Majesti es George V and Queen Mary visited India and indulged in the extravagance and splendour of the historic - Delhi Durbar. But behind the pomp, pageantry and show of power, there was a deceptive calm , an uncann y feeling of revenge and Iebellion. The British called it sedition. The cult of the bomb. accompanied by an emerging revolutionary , consciousness, spread rapidly to other parts of India

Secret service agent

from Bengal. Th e powe r and' glory of the Raj ca me unde r attack from a growing wave of violent upheavals. In 1910. Lord Hardinge , the Viceroy, was singled out for assassination.

The Guru Nanak Jahaz So this is the story of the voyage of the Komagata Maru , a Japanese cargo boat which took 376 people (340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 Hindus) on a journe y across the Pacific from Hong Kong to Van co uver. The yea r was 1914; Europe was on the brink of the First World War. While Britain was bracing itself to meet the German challenge to its imperial. supremacy. the passengers on board the former coal ship, which they had renamed the Guru Nanak Jahaz after the founding guru of the Sikhs. were taking to the high seas in a bid to exert their rights as citizens of the British Empire. Their destination was British Columbia where a few thousand of their friends and relatives had already settled. Those on board had resolved to claim their right to equal treatment with white citizens of the Empire and force entry into Canada . .

Breaking the race barrier The man who made the voyage possible was.Gurdit Singh , a Sikh businessman settled in Singapore. He set off determined to challenge Canada 's newly enancted immigration rules. Each prospective immigrant was required to have 200 dollars on landing and a through ticket 01) a single ship from his country of origin. It was a case of saying, 'If you are not white, you may not enter this White Man's Land' . Gurdit Singh chartered the ship, arranged the finance , collected the passengers , firing their zeal to meet the most impossible conditions, undaunted by Canada's colour bar. When the ship sailed into Canadian waters, she was refused entry into the port and had to anchor off Vancouver Bay for two mOl)ths. The passengers had to endure extreme physical h~dship and relentless harassment by immigration officials. They were denied water and food and threatened by naval gunboats. But the Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus remained united, boosting their morale with the spirit ofGhadr ,(Revolution) -and soul-stirring religious singing.

The ship was eventually forced to return to Ca lcutta. But by now the.passengers were full of revolutionary fervour and once in India , determined to join th e terrorist movem ent agai nst fore ign rul e. In Yokohama th ey picked up two hundred a utomatic pistols and two tho usa nd rounds ofammunition whi ch had bee n sent th rough R co uri e r from Ca li fornia. The Raj on .its part was eq l) a ll y determined to preven t th e infiltra ti on of th e Kom agata Ma ru Ghadrites int o the politi ca ll y volatile atm osp here of Punjab. On their disembarkation at Ca lc utta, troops opened fire whi le allemp tin g to con trol th e passengers Rnd a number of th e m were ki ll ed. And so ended a tragic voyage. The horrendous expe ri ences of the passengers a nd th e hea rtl ess intransigence of th e co loni a l au thoriti es boil ed th e blood of Punjabi s. f\ spir it of d isa ffection and rebe lli on sprea d ac ross northern In dia culmin a ting in the bloody massacre of over three hundred innoce nt men, women a nd chil dren at /a li a nwal R Bag h in th e precin cts of Amrit sar's fab led 'Go ld en Tem ple.

Revenge assassina tion

Hopki nson 's i ntell igen ceThe Canadia n and British a uthoriti es were keen to stem gath eri ng clearly established the con nec tion bet ween the th e tid e of emigration to North America, where Indian im'm i- Ghadrites of Vancouver and grants had already established California with terrorists in Inth e Ghadr Party to finance , sup- dia. He inform ed the Indian a uply and support by all possi ble thorities that sin ce the return of the Komagata Maru . the mea ns the terrorist movement in India. As a network of secret Ghadrites were planning a mass return to India to ta ke part in a revolutionary societies spread violent upri sing agai nst foreign from the Punjab and Bengal to rule . Ironically, his own rol e Indi an co mmunities overseas, an intelligence organisation was now reversed from keeping Indians out of N01'th America to grew apace to track down the preventing their departure for conspi ra tors. William Charles Hopkinson, India! In the eyes of the revolutionan Indian-bo~n Englishman on secondment from the Indian Po- aries, Hopkinson and his inlice, was a dedicated secret formers were marked men . A service officer stationed in few weeks after the Komagata Vancouver to monitor and reMaru left Vancouver. a spate of port the activities of the killings took place: Ghadrites Ghadrites. When the Komagata versus traitors who had become Maru anchored off Vancouver a part of the British-Canadian in the early hours of Saturday intelligence network . Eventual23rd May 1914, Hopkinson was lyon October 21st 1914, the there with the Canadian offi- Ghadrites got the man they cials. And so began. a battle of most wanted: Hopkinson was nerves between the ship and '5unned down in the corridor of the shore committee of Sikhs on the provincial courthouse in one side, and Hopkinson and 路Vancouver. where a trial involving the murder of one of their Canadian immigration on the other. ..own men was in progress.

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Sun,day 15-30 June 1986

:The

_T_hl_路s_F_o_r_tn_ig_h_t_'s_S_t_or_y_____________ f that heavenl y place called Chengani. you just cou Id not have read in a geograph y book: you just co uld not have seen a pi c ture of it or eve n co m e across a refere nce to it in th e gaze tt es-on e of th e boons thi s gove rnm e nt of ours has given us, a gift born of magn a nimit yeve n if yo u were to go th ro ugh the pages over and over agai n . But th en, if vou be li eve m e and t ha t a non y mou s poet who sa id: To the wes t of Taruva i is Chengani When there is a flood, you can really row a boa\... then I ca n re la te th e story. That is, w hen th ere is a flood, a boat can act ua ll y be rowed in th e s tream. But th e stream was bridged. and th e bridge sepa ra ted C he nga ni from Taruvai-Tiruppadi. Th e tamarind tree s tands o n th e street a little away from t he bridge. Near by is th e smithy, in a shambles. Twen ty years ago this modes t smit hy had Ramasami Pattar as its presiding deity. Because of hi s too s ha rp inte lli gence and ven turesome tempera me nt Ramasami Pa llar found the job of patc hin g up pushca rts or bulloc kcarts, s hoeing th e bulloc ks th e mse lves and mak ing nails of a ll sizes as a hobby, a littl e too dull. His father had done all thi s, tru e to the trad iti on of th e black smit hs. Neve rth e less , th e Pattar bade good bye to C he ngani . to hi s ances tra l workshop and horne a nd migrated to Tirun e lveli . Begi nning with repai ring cycles and wa tc hes, the Pallar gr ad ua ted over to ca rs, calling himself'm ec ha ni c' and 'driver'. FinaJl y, he ca ll ed him se lf 'a mo tor e ngineer'. And' with th is las t titl e he s tar te d a workshop-not a m e re smith y. For ten years, Ramasami Palla r was just not to be approac hed. Natura1ly . T hat 's what yo u and I would do too, if we sudden ly ra n into mon ey. There was no prostitut e th e Pallar did not visit. a nd , th e re wa s no ' disease the Pallar did not receive in exchange. Now is th e danger of Lh e child becoming really imm oral, thought the relatives, and so they got hi m married . The gentle lady gave birth to two girls wilhin three years of th e marriage. She then left this world for the next after thrusting the grave responsibility on the Pattar. Before kindhearted relatives could do something once again , the workshop created for the Pattar exactly that situation which the relatives hoped would be avoided . There was debt everyw here. Workers gave trouble. The Pattar could not comple te jobs on hand . The jobs sought other smithies. Ten years passe d by in the hope that this was a temporar y s tate of affairs. Man can put up with so much 'only and to such and such point. But when th e flood waters h ave c rossed th e head? Th e works hop was close d on an auspicious day. That did not solve th e Pa ttar's problems, of course. It was the s tory of the C helliar li ving and ruining an d dying and ruining.

Sunday 15-30 June 1986

______________

Sacrifice Personified

~PJ--------------

Whatever should be done now? Renounce everything, don saffron and go abegging? Chchi! Beg? Is there anything so despicable? Why not rob the bastard who is depriving me of my life? Which dharma will be damaged by robbing the robber? Trans lated from Tamil T he Pallar went on a kind of sympa th y-seeking mISSIon round th e c it y for a few days, shedding tears over hi s t wo mo th erless ua ugh tel's grow i ng lip fast. The joint burden of debts and two daughters turned a man of forty into somet hin g of immense an tiquity . Was th ere at leas t s trength left in the body? No. The cap ital acqu ired in those days spent in pleasant co mpa ny was not a lilosl. Those pec uli ar co mpla int s, which had played hide-and-seek wi th m edicines lill now , s tart ed bein g matey once more. +

Wh e n Ramanujalu Naidu of the In do-Eu ropean Moto r Mechani ca l Works gave th e Pa ttar the job of a filter , h e fell a t th e Naidu's fee t, calling him ' Annadata '. Pa lla r jus t co uldn ' t he lp it. could he? You would have done it too. I too, if th e re

had been two girl s to bring up and no job. Th e salary Naidu paid was an im pressive twen ty rupees a month _ From six in th e morning till th e workshop closed for th e day. Ramasami Pattar remained on duty. Th is wen t on for a yea r. II was a year of secure poverty . That thing th ey ta lk about si llin g re laxed in a rm c hai rs .. . tha t thi ng they ca ll recession ... we ll , th a t thing ca me a lo ng. You a nd I cou ld disc uss for hours abo ut th e principl es of recess ion, abou t its in tri cacies, abou t its essen ti a l fe a tures. We cou ld also write a lot about a ll this . But ne ith er yo u nor I co uld be so clear a bout what exac tl y recession is as Raman u jalu Naidu was. Now Naidu was a ni ce person, rea ll y. Atti mes he he lped o ne out with a fiv e r or eve n a te nn er. But

then he had le ft ivl a d ras for Tirun e lvcli to a mass wealth. He had not mi grated to ope n a cha 1'itable trust for hi s work e rs. Naidu a XHd. Te n vi c tim s. One of th e m was Ra masami Patter. They begge d. They prostm ted th e mselv es be fore the god . Th e y sa id th e v would work on half pa y. Buttlle n, it was not a dhoromsolo th a t Ramanujalu Naidu ran . Now, supposing there is a nice , fat cow. Wha t is its food? It is jus t luxurious. isn 't it? The cow is th e app le of, the eye. Now, s upposing th e cow grows o ld. No m il k. Do we worsh ip it th e n? No . Certa inl y not. We decide to ge t money fo r it s skin a t least. We ge t rid of th e cow , don't we? And so. what was really wrong with Ramanu ja lu Naidu wie lding th e axe '? So. th a t was thaI. T ha t was ju t th a I. He w~o

ca ll s it wrong is s tupid . W hen Ramasami Pa llar received his sa lary that day, h e did not kn ow what exactly to do, really . The money wou ld las t exactl y four days. After th at? Some ot her workshop? Wouldn't it be the same s tory th ere too? T he world, Pallar dec ided. was just heartless. If thl' Pa tt a r had had th e third eye. he would have redu ced everything to ashes. He had onl y two , a nd wit h them he spo tt ed th e n earest toddyshop. What should be do ne now? Whatever should be done now? Renounce everything, don saffron and go abegging? Chc hi'?Beg? Is there anything so despicable? Why nol rob the bastard who is depriving me of my lift!? Which dharma will be damaged by robhing the rohber? Ra ma nuia lu Na inu wo ul d be goin g throu gh th e acco llnts ro unu te n o r el e ve n a t ni ght. Wh y not de al with him the n ? R<l masa mi Pallar giv e hi s uaught e rs th e路 mon ey left o ve r after the lime spent at th e toddyshop. He gave th e money like a ma c hin e and ate lik e a machine. . "Why are yo u like this. Fa th e r?" There was no answe r to th e question. suddenly the PallaI' caught hold of his daughters and s tarted kissing th em quite vio lently. turn by lu rn. AmongH in dus, fathers don ' t kiss grownup daughters. They ju t do not have th e ri gh t to. The gi rl s go t nervous. They wondered if th eir father was drunk. They quaked with fea r. "We have good tim es a head of us? Naidu h as offered me a job of fifty rupees in Madras. He has asked me to come and ge t some a dvance to- ni ght' '' he sa id . The Patt ar left the house to fu lfill hi s wishes. As expec ted. Ramanujalu Naidu was a lone. "Oh, Ramasam i! Wha t can I do? I ju s t ca n't he lp it! It s no use coming to m e. rea ll y!" Naidu sa id . "What you ' ve give n me is n o t e nou gh! " Ra ma sa mi sa id. Hi s voice so unded different. May be he's drunk. th o ught Ramanujalu Na idu . "Come Tomorrow ", h e said. "Tomorrow? Just see what I do to yo u! You have ruin ed m y famil y, you robbing rasca l! " Ramasa mi pounced on th e Naidu and made a grab for th e notes . Naidu was all a ton e, of course . But th e n th e e ntire world was not s lee ping, was it ? Ram asa mi was ca ught simply. Whal e lse is there to e laborate on ? It was assa ult with inte nt to rob. Six months. Pa ttar ha s fr ee m ea ls now. Whi c h trade union is so beneva le nt towards a worker c harged wilh th e ft ? There is justice in the world . is n't th e re? d iffi c ult to write about th e gi rl s. rea ll y. T hi s ancie nt Hind u socie ty of ou rs. w hi ch has di sco vere d the principle of s ins visi ting you beca use of your misdeeds in a n ea rli e r life, wou ld regard it al l as quite natu ra l. wou ldn't it'?

Its

F8rum ______________________

This Crazy World

Gazel~

PUNJAB ALL IS NOT LOST

From Author to Deputy Minister Dalip Singh The recent elevation of a co uple of writers to th e ranks of MPs reminds m e of my own expe ri ence when the hidd en hand of prov id ence (or was ilth e Intelligence Bureau ?) pic ked me up from th e flouri shing (or sho uld I say the impoverished) lri be of wr it e rs and ca tapu lte d me in to th e di zzy h e ights ofInd ian poli tics. I was not only nominated to th e Parliament but also made a Deputy Mini s ter. Well, a bout that la ter. First. le t me tell you about m y self. I too am a writer. Does that sound lik e a confession? In a way it is. A confession invariably h e lps to dissolve the feeling of guilt. Long be for e I was induc te d into politics I was a rathe r principl e d w riter, personally against a ll kinds state patronage of writers and supported all lhose who condemned it. Wheneve r concerned people organ ised a meeting or a demonstration , to expose th e gove rnm ent's hand in co rrupting writers by offering them a ll sorts of temptations, I always m ade it a point to attend it and join them in urging the government to leave us authors a lon e.

m y dut ies in a n exemplary way . So I decided to b egin by drawing up a li st of do's and d o nl's for m yself. I had ha rdly s tarted, howev e r, when a n interruption came-in th e form of a poet whom, in th e da ys of m y politica l wi ld erness, I had seen in the coffee house regaling hi s fri e nds with musky verses. " You ca n 't imagine how happy we are at yo ur elevation from a coffe e house chair to a 'gaddi ' in the government. Our congratulations. Oh don't worry! I ha ve not come to ask a favour , oh no-you know I am not that type, don' t you? Indeed, we a ll want you to function w ithout fear or favour. As soon as I read in th e pape rs about your well-deserved appointment I was transported into a poetic frenzy! This poem which , eme rged which I really did not write. It was dictated , beli e ve me , by som e Hidden Power, about which I know little." In spi te of my protests about time and place and h ea vy work , he insisted on reading out the poem, which co mpared me to Alexander the Great. Blushing

not deny th e public the righ t to know yo u b e tter!" I was thinking franti ca ll y of som e wa y to ge t away from a ll this when anot her visitor joined us. He introduced himself as a his torian . "In the co urse of m y in-d epth research in th e ancien t past of India, I accide ntall y came upon this. I though t yo u ' like to see it. " "THIS" was a genealogi ca l ta bl e linking my famil y to Lord Krishna . "You are a direc t descendant of the Lord", h e said . Like everyone e lse. in my youthful days I had m y flings and sown my wild oa ts. But that it was be cause of some 'Govinda' blood in my veins. was a bit of a revelation . if yo u know what I mean . "You are a Kanwar, you know! This record of mine must be published to give you your rightful place . Government grants a re wasted to determine useless things like the date of birth of Shivaji. Why shouldn ' t the government publish genuine research such as lhis?" h e asked indignantly. very angry at th e injustice done to me . I tried to explain to the historian that I had never seen a halo

Conti nue d from page 9 left fo rces. Si mil a rly outmigration of Hi ndus from vi ll ages in certain a reas has not bee n a llowed b y Sikh peasan try whi ch has gura nteed securi ty of th e ir life and property. Apart from a vast popular sec ul ar base , o rganised forces under th e CPI, CPM. a nd d iffer e nt Na xa lit e gro ups ha ve stood against communa li sm. Th e CP I orga ni sed de mons tra ti on aga ins t Bhindranwa ll e's Le rror at Moga . Bhaga purana , and Mansa must be re m embered . In th e Va lh o tra a rea (Amritsa r) th e CPI ex-MLA . Comracje Arjun Sin gh Mas tana. co ntinu ed th e anti -te rror campaign unti l h e fe ll to terrorist a tt acks. He he lped in capturing some terroris ts by vi ll agers an d ex posed th e rol e of ruling politicians. Le ft co ntroll ed news papers have rai sed th e ir voices aga inst th e communa l poison . Though less active t he CPM has a lso pla yed its part in this baltl e. Its stude nt wing, the Student Federa tion of India (SFI) clashed open ly with th e AISSF a t Ta rn Tarn. Phagwara . Dera Bassi. Rajpura and oth e r places. Rece ntly th e CPI and C PM organ ised dharna agains t th e killing of innoce nt persons and com mun a lism in a ll Punjab towns. Th e ir trade unions have a lso pla yed a significant rol e. Various Naxalite groups have taken a bold. forthright stand agai nst commun al forces and

ca mpaign ed through their p eriod ica ls and leafl e ts . whil e opnely challenging terroris t ba cked Sikh organisa tions in Moga and Rampura Phul a reas. More recent ly the Punjab S tu dents Un ion (PSU) Dha li wa l group , has c hallenged th e A1SSF in Curdaspur and Amritsa r d is tri c ts a nd fo ll owing Hmed co nfrontation s, th e AfSSF was forced Lo withdraw .

Ho weve r Congress (l) and Aka li ddmin is tratio ns have virtually ba nn e d publi c m eet ings a nd demonstrations by th ese le ft sec u lar forces. On th e other hand . bo th Hindu and Sikh communal bod ies h ave been pe rmitt ed to demonstrate and indulge in violence under ·th e ga rb of re li gious activities. Membe rs of le ft organisations have been impli ca ted in false cases, bea te n a nd tortured by police and a rm ed forces and . above a ll. have faced the terroris ts' wrath . The left movement • los t Arjun Singh Mastana , Sumit Singh of PreeLlari. Sukhraj Khaddar of Chi ngari , Rattan Singh of Surkh-Rekha, a nd a lmos t a ll prominent lead- . e rs a re und er threat. One can have man y co mpla insts against th e le ft forces but to-day they are th e only organised positive force against co mmunalism a nd secession in th e State. And the y need to be enco uraged . •

HINDU FEARS IN PUNJAB

Then came the day when f was th e one chosen to be eleva ted to th e exa lt ed position of a m em ber of parliament. W h en t ha t happ ened. I co nveni e n tl y ignored whatever I had sa id or done before . In ot h er words I immediately started appreciating th e wisdom of the famous adage. ' Let bygones be bygones'. and developed a forward looking philosophy overnight. Some of my friends did th eir best to cautio'n me not to yield to th e temptation . They reminded me that politics is the last refuge of sco undrels. Bu t. right then their logic did not appeal to me. I retorted that in the e days of 'Candhian ' politicians it is almos t sense less to believe in a thing like that! However. it did no t take me long to co me to my se nses. And th is is how it happened . had jus t ret urned from Rashtrapati Bhawa n after th e swearing- in ce remony . My appointmen t as Deputy Minister had come <fS a surprise to many including myself. However. I was determined to justify mv ap pointment and disch arge

a nd e mbarrassed . I tried to explain to him th at a democ ra tic se t-up like our p rovided no place or opportuni ty of the kind prevailing in Alexan der's tim e. He brus he d ita 11 aside . "I know you r Ca libre. my friend ." he exclaimed. "Wha t I ha ve said in the poem is the truth . an d nothing e lse . I am going to include th a t poem in my anthology. coming out this week . Letthe world read it. and ju dge for itself. Believe me. th e governmen t wou ld like to buy at least a th ousand copies to send to the lib raries. You can-

around th e head of e ith e r my fath e r or min e and didn' t even ex pect to . But he was noLto be put off 0 lightl y. He sa id I d id n o t have th e hi s torian 's eye . At th is mom e nt who s ho uld walk in but m yo id primary sc hool teach er. "I told yo u a lways" , he said . "th a t th e p rescr ibed texts we re a ll wrong. No c hild ca n learn from th em . Do you reme mber how It a ught you from text s I had prepared myse lf? And look where you have reached! It's lu cky for m e. my book has been published jus t whe n the na tion has recognised your ta len ts! Oth e r c hildren ca n be he lped a lso . in th e way yo u were ..... At thi s point . th e las t straw had been placed on th e came l's ba ck. th e c up was overfl owing. th e end of th e tet h e r had not only been reach e d but was being c h ewed in he lpl ess exasperat ion . "LEAVE ME ALONE", I s ho uted and ran o ut. I did not stop unti l I was in Ras htrapati Bhawan again. and had de livered m y rerignation . Then I s lunk out and aga in joined the crowd demanding that the government leave th e write rs and a uthors a lo ne .

Continu ed from pa ge 3 maso ns are pure ly eco nomic. Be for e thi s unres t mos t of th e pu lice d e pended on ac tiviti es s uc h <1S th e illi c it liqu uur makin g ' 13h<1l1 <1s' for ex lm in co m e; now ins lea d Ih ey mak(~ a be tt er s um from the Hindu fa mili es in li e u of th eir pro tecti o n . On th e o llwr hand th e Sikh fa mili (~s have 10 pa y pro ler.1 th e ir so ns fWIll police harassm e nt. In som e instances some Jl e op l(~ ha ve Pove n id e ntifi e d th e te rro ris ts as be in g policemen. With a la rge ly S i kh po l ice force Ih is ber.o mes a direc t ca use o f comm u na I III is t ru s t. T lw C R PI .' an d 13S F am C]ui le in e ffec tive beca use th eir ul li ma tn co nlro l li (~ s w ith th e puli ce. Th e Il indu s f(~e l safes t w ith th e Army . Q. Wou ld yo u ree l saf(~ r with Ihn (:ollgrnss- I in pow e r'?

A. No! T he Aka lis mav have bnlra yed tl1() Hindus of Punjab but we have! ff!w illu s ions of th e Congress . T he ir un sc rll plous games ha\'(~ so ld Ih e s tnte to to lal anarchy . Whi r. heve r pnr ly is vo ted to pow er Ih e o th e r will slo p a t no thing it d es t n bili z (~ an d Ih e dange rou s e le ments that have surfaced on ce w ill a lwnys be ava ilab le for e xp lo ita -

(ion . Per haps it is tim e to give a par ty lik e th e C PI -M a c ha nce . Q. Wi ll you re turn to Punjab?

A. Yes ' A nc-/ r spea k for a ll th ese film ili es wh fl n I say th a t we w ill re turn but no t unti l Punjil b is mil de sa fe for th e I'unjnbi. I.'or our sn ke w e hope it will be soo n. he un sc rllplou s po lit ic ia n. th e cor rupt po lice forc e a nd Ih e insensi ti ve ilrmy. a re a lJ too fa miliar te rm s; on ce aga in s ignifjcnnt in Ih e tnl e of th e migra ling Hindu . However th e nw din hilS Ihrough co nsistent rhe toric .onfin ed th e Punjab prohl e m 10 co m III u nil I eq uati un . Adm itt e dl v commun a l dis lwrmo n v today is a conve nien t ;)nd I)e rs uilsive a rgum e nt for di smissi ng governme nt respons ibi lit y for th e widespread lIllms l in th e cO lill try. If Ih e l'un ja lJ c ri s is is er roneously present nd ilS a com munal fa it ;Jccompli it wi ll spe ll final and i rmversi bl e disas te r. Toda v th a i lill H o f discre tion is Vf!ry fine an d (. ven irresponsible in nu elldo can do ser io us riamagfL Can th e PUlljabis dema nn thi s di scm ti on to prese rve th ei r Punjilb? •

. , pRln1QgRaphiCS PHOTOTYPESETTING, WORD PROCESSING BY WP. ELECTRONIC TYPING, ELECTROSTAT PHOTOSTAT, OFFSET PRINTING ROTA P~ESS 14. Municipal Market. Connaughl Circus New Delhi -l l0001 Phon es: 352471 . 325509. 32555~

Sunday 15-30 June 1986

:The

_T_he_G __ oo_d_E_a_rt_h________________

~PJ--------------------------

June 5 was World Environment Day . Another day when we further poisoned our air, polluted and wasted our water re sources and continued to cut down our forests. It was another day when we denourished the soil, polluted the lives of mil-

lions with hunger disease and unempl~yment ; another day which saw the erosion of the human right to live in a social and geophysical environment of peace, justice and -democracy.

Water

Atmosphere ,

Touay , Indi a uses a te nth of th e rainfa ll it receives a nnu a lly and. eve n 40 yea rs from now, will be using a qu a rt er. But it must lea rn to store th e wat()J' and use even th e fraction it U SBS without polluting it. otherwise there will be serious water shortage, India's groundwater msourr:esa realmost lOtim esi tsa nnual rainfall. But wi th OVBr 170.000 tubewell s added eve ry year during th e HI7()s. the water tab le is dec linin g in many amas. leav in g th e dugwells of th e poor high and dry. Ancient India stored rainfall in tanks and ponds butthe Britis h and th e independent Indi a n adminis tra ti o ns have neglected them , so w h ere tanks irrigated half the r:ropped area a ce ntury ago they now irriga te less than 10 per cen t. Expe rts r:n lculate th a t tanks built over 3 () per cenl of In dia 's la nd area cu uld s tom a quar ter of its rainfall. All bu t two of the high a ltitud e lakes in Indi a are s tea d- . ily dying because of pollu ti on. The slow dea th of Ka shm ir 's Dallake is threatening th e livelihood of 50,000 fish erfo lk . The er:o logical valu of wella nels ha s ye l to be u nd e rstoocl . Cal cutta's Sa lt Lake Ci ly tod ay s lands on a former sprawing we tl and and th e resul't i's, with th e d ty's natural dra in age system bl ockecl , every shower turns into a fl ood and th l? c it v has lost a majOl: sou rce or fisl-i , its favouri te food . [n creas ingly po llut ed rivers and lakes a nd la rge clams a re seriou s ly affec tin g riverin e fisheries, The migratory hi[ sa, a much sought d e li car.y. is being dammed to death .

The world's worst ai r pollution problem could be th e woodsmoke inhal ed by poor rura l women while cook in g. A tonn e of parlj c ul a tes from household woodstoves may actually lead to more, than 500 times th e human ex posure than a tonn e of particulates from a r.oalfired power s talion . A study in Gujarat s hows that women while cooki ng inh a le 40 tim es the volume of suspended particles co ns id ered safe by WHO. In barely three hours th ey inh a le an amount of r.a rcinogenic benzo (a) pyrene th a t equals 20 packs of c igarettes. more ihan any industrial work e r wi ll ue ex pose d to in any industry in eigh t working hours. Exposure during th e mon.soon. when people reduce th e venti lation ' points in ' their hom es. can be e igh t times th e . no rmal. A. ! wood becomes scarce, womp.1l turn tn r.owd ung. which ge ne ra tes even more po[ lutioll. Mci hy new cooking fuels li ke r. rop wastes and w eeds have, nevfir b een tes ted for pollution

Dams

Large darps are t'oday Indi a's most co ntroversia~ environm e ntal issu e. Silent Vall ey h as already been given ' up. Groups a.re proteSling against another half a dozen. The key issu e is not na ture but people. Energy apd water planners are stressing hydropower and cana l irrigation but have made no s tud y of how man :' people wil l be displaced. Governmen t officia ls argue that "someone h as to suffer for progress", Usually these "50 meOll s" are triba ls, the poores t and the most powerless. The co lossal Narmada Basin De velopment .Programme. which will inv'olve the building

Sunday 15-30 June 1986

Millions of riv e rin e fisherl'olk. th e ir very surv ival un r.e rtain . now trave l long rlistances and months in search of !'ish . Dam wa ters IlOW r.ove r n early onp. pe r ce nt of In d ia's Ian ¢.. area, but proullce [ittl e fish and' provide Jill.le emp loy m e nt flor th e ,impoverished fisherfolk . th e highest anllua l y ield of a reservoir is on ly 190 kg a h ectare annually. but some fi sb ponds record 8.000 kg a hec tare. Indi a's inland fisb ca tr. h is , grow ing. mainly .because of the spur t of aquacu llure in privat e ponds r.on tro ll ed by ri c h farmers, eve n as pollution snatches away from millions of poor risherfol k th e i r Ii velihood .• of 329 large dams. may end up costing Rs 25,000 cro re. It w ill also disp la ce a million people. Experienr.e s hows t hat people. for th e moment. are prepared to mov e bUI th ey want new land for old. Except in Maharashtra. thi s prinr:iple ,i s not accej1 ted by any s tate gove rnm en t. The cos l of for es ts lost is a Iso hi gh . Large dams have drowned half a million h ec tares of for es t - abou t a tenth of th e a rea t'!i a t h as be nefi ll ed from canal irriga tion . Wi th 176 major and 447 m e dium irri ga li on projects. under cons tru c tion . most behind sch ed ule , so m e experts argue: ",No new proj ects now : consolidate and [earn to get good crops from what we already have". Small earthen dams for water harves ting are both eco logically so und and economically profitable. Three small reservoirs have transformed the economy of a village near C handigarh. There is no soil erosion. no deforestation , no desertification , and no one has been displaced. Th e lesson: water conservation, yes: big dams, no.

,Forests

hazard . A 15-year st ud y in Delhi found th e same inciden ce of corpu lm ona le (enlargement of the h ea rt) in bo th men and wome n . even though few wom e n smoke. a nd concluded thi s to be th e result fo wome n's exposure to woodsmoke . Exposure to wood s moke is parti c ularl y har mful for mal-nourished. anaemic women as .ca rbon monoxide. an import a nt co mpon en t of woodsmoke . in ·c reases t h e e ffec t of anaemia by redUCing the h aemoglobin availab le in th e b rood. Over a quarter of Ind ian women i'n the 'reproductive age gro u p a re a naemic. Environmental air pollution is a lso in c reasing s teadil y. 1n 15

Th ey are , h owever. popular wit l'; farmers: in U ttar Prades h , The Latest sate ll ite data con- farmers pi cked up 30 tim es firm th a t Ind ia is losing 1 .3 mi[- more sep.d lin gs than th e target. lion h eclare of forests a yea r. But commu nit y wood lots, to nearly eight tim es th e annual meet th e fuel and fodder n eeds rate put out by forest o f th e poor a nd landl ess, pepartments. reached only abo ut a ten th of So great is the wood s hortage th e target. and so hi gh are wooel [Jri ces that Socia I forestr y Illay even be Tam il Nadu fisherfolk find i t e xa ce rbating the energy crisis diffi c ult to mak e ca tamarans, for landless la boure rs. When 4 Karnataka vill age rs to buy ne w farmers in Punjab sw it ch from bullock ca rts and Andhra mllon to eucalyp tu s. workers Pradesh c rafts people to m ake lose th e ir main fuel: co tton wood toys . stalks. Nine dams are to be built EucalypLus cove rs nearly along th e lndrava ti in Bastar, ha lf a million h ec tares, but th e In d ia's last tri ba l fronti e r, turntree is not very popu la r wit b e ning the tribal s refugees in their ' vironmentalists . [n Karnalaka. ow n hom e land. Basta r 's forest s pro tes ters have uproo ted eucaare a lso thl'ea tene'd with mines lyp tu s in several p laces. whi le and wood-based indu s tri es. some farm e rs have d ug trenc hBy 1990, Indi a hopes to green es between th eir fields and e un ea rly 2 million hec ta res a t a ca lyp tus stands to ' keep eucacos t of about Rs 600 crore. lyptu s roots away from th e ir But th e social forestry pro-I r: rops: Quick-growing e u ca lypgrammes a re heavily c riticised : trees are planted as commercia l investment and not to fulfil basic su rvi val needs of fu e l and fodder.

years . the quantity of sulphur dioxid e re leased irlto teh ai r has tripl ed. Acid ra in . the scourge of fo rests and lakes in Europe and North Ameri ca. is now found in industrialised areas lik e Bombay , Delhi . Pune. Of the 48 thermal power stalions officia ll y surveyed in 1984,31 had taken no pollution con trol measures and on ly six had th e i r poilu ti on co'nt rol eq uipm e nt functioning properly. Giant s uperth e rm a l power s tations is the la tes t poli cy. At Sin grau li, wh e re over '10 ,000 MW of power gene ration capacity is to be ultima te ly sited. th e n;illion-odd people who will li ve th ere ould be e xposed to 10 times the pollu tio n leve ls set by th e government. T h e CllTrent car and twowh ee ler boom in Indian cities - cou ld c h oke thousands to death, De lhi 's half-a-million I motor vehicles spew 400 tonnes ofpollulants daily.ln Bombay. (] municipal su rv ey shows that air pollution is a major cause: of tu bf'rGulos is and various respira tory a ilm e nts.

tus plantations are depleting so il nutri en ts in Utta r Pradesh, Punjab and Harya na. Few a tte mpts are being made to involve th e landless in afforesta tion . Some 5 million to 10 million la ndl ess families could be se lll ed on th ese lands. making i.t th e country's larges t ,land reforms progra mm e .•

Excerpt~ f(om: The State India's Environment 1984-85 Centre for Science andlEnvironment 807 , Visha l Bhawan, 95 Nehru Place New Delhj-ll0019.

r=8rum____________ ____________ GazCltc

Punjab Struggles for Sanity people. 10 Hindus a nd one S ikh were gunn ed down in a terroris t a ttac k las t m onth . Sikh shopkeepers have loc ke d up th e ir s hops and Sik h families hav e all lefl. te mporaril y. to'stay with re la ti ves in th e c it y, For Kri shnanaga r has a la rge Hindu ma jority . ne ge ts th e fe e lingof o rdi nary peo ple o f both communiti es s tru ggling despe ra te ly for sanity . fo r norm a lcy. struggling to cling to th e life th ey have known. aga inst forces'yv hi c h are trying to tea r th e Punjab apart through in. e nsa te killings . through fear . and s us pi c ion . through delibera te ly in cit ed hatred. But beca use of ad mini s tra tive paralys is. tota l politi ca l failure as th e Aka li Dal leade rs hip e ngages in int e rnal pow e r s tru gg les a nd a t he r politi ca l parties re main inac ti ve. a nd Ne w De lhi 's delibe ra te or in e pt mishandling of th e Punjab situation over the pas t four years . th e Punjab cris is is acce le ratin g a t a frightenin g rat e-a runaway train w ith no one at th e co ntrol s. The terrorist s trategy is cl ea r: to induce a massive Hindu migration res ulti ng in a Hindu ba c Hash of violence against Sikhs outside Punjab followed by Sikh migra!'ion to the state. The result in terrori st terms . Khalistan .

Punjab In Microcosm Jand iala Guru re flects the Punjab situation in microcosm. All th e co ntributor"y elements are the re-te rrorist killings building up inter-communal tension. pol ice inaction, the prese nce of militant Sikh and Hindu o rganisa tion s ready to ste p into th e si tuation , Hindu migration . The population of 18000 is m ade up of Hindu s and Sikh s in equal proportions, 7000 eac h with Mazbis and Balmikis to tall y about 4000. The All India S ikh Students' FederatiolJ has fiv e o ffi ces in Jandiala , the Hindu Shiv Se na an office affilia ted close ly with th e Amritsar branch . Both organisatioH5...... have work e rs in the viIlage ..

with Ma zb i Sik hs be lo nging to bot h cad res. A month ago. th e S hiv Se na pradhan . Chaman La!. was kill ed . a ll ege d ly by te rrori sts and te ns ion ha s bee n building eve r sin ce. aggrava ted by th e a rrival of 30 Hindu famili es from villages a ro und Khadur Sahib in T a rn Taran area . Th ese famili es. from vi lI ages with ti n y Hindu populations , le ft th ei r hom es afte r te rrori s t threa ts or ac tual killings. (W e found th e sa me pattern in o th er pla ces in Amritsar distri c t) Ashok Kumar. C hama n Lal 's e ld e r brother a nd now S hi v Sena pradhan . to ld u:~ that on th e afternoo n o f 29 th May h e had warn ed th e poli ce abo ut s uspic ious look in g young men c ircling th e village in .iI Fiat and told th em th a t he feared a te rrori s t attack. He s tat ed a ngr ily that th e poli ce to ok no noti ce. That eve nin g a t 11.30 p.m. whil e a Ramay an Akhand 'paath' was going on in connection with th e co nstru c tion of a Balmiki Mandir. six yo ung men -eyew itn esses told us they were Sikhs-came up the path from behind, and. Without warning. two of them , th eir faces covered with their turbans , opened fire into the listening g~oup . Young Terse m Singh or Lal-the names seem interchangeable died immedi _ately Bhagwan Singh / La I died . In hospiLal. Both were Mazbis, n'either was a keshdhari Sikh . Five others were wounded . One of them , 16 year old Raman Kumar. named two of the terrorists as a loca l boy, Sati, alleged lya known smuggler, and his accompli ce. People told us angril y that th e police had held both boys briefl y. Ih e n released th e m .

Typical Communal Riot After the c rem a tion th e next Iday , a tt e nd ed by Amritsar Shiv Sen a cad res, th e angry c rowd路 tried to set fire to SaU 's hou se a nd other Sikh homes. Ni ght c urfew was imposed and th e CRPF se nt to the vil lage .

la ndi a la had beco me a "hot spot" . Wh e n we reache rlth e vi llage we fou nd th e Fed e ration o ffi ces c losed. Th e unl y Sik hs we saw we re a ha ndful of older me n. s il e nt an d unsmilin g. e1ust e rt~ d toge th e r al th e e ntran ce to th e vi ll age . The te ns ion in th e a ir was palpab le . (According to ne wspaper re ports. un th e followin g d ay when Union Minister . Gurdia l S in gh Dhillon . tri e d to address a mee tin g in lan dial n'i; Municipal Hall. th e village el<p loded into viol e nce. as Shiv. p.na a nd Fe d e ra lion ca dres pe ll ed each o th e r with s to nes a nd acid bolli es in a ty pi ca l com munal ri ot. When tea rgas failed 10 co ntrol th e mobs . th e police or CRr fir e d. flnd c urfe w was re imposed.

' pa nd a l th at a ll Hindu fam ili es s hou ld leave. Th ey to ld a ll th e Si kh s to boyco ll Hindu s so th a t th ey would go. Th e re we re on ly eight Brahmin familie s 'in th e vi Il age . Th e re was no boycott, but ne ith e r was th e re reass urance or he lp. Fear obviousl y dominat(~ s both communiti es. Our infor ma nt reca ll ed how . afte r Operation [Jlu e Star. th e Sikh sa rpan c h of th e vil lage had e s co rtf~ d th e m a ll to landial a for sa fe ty as he fea red t ha t h f~ migh t not be ab le to pro tec t th e m. "T hi s tim e he told LI S th a t he cuuld do nothing and we cam e on our uwn" . A gov e rnment High Sc hool t ear. h ~l r (all gove rnm e nt e mployees wan te d th e ir names withhe ld) from Pakhot e had not ea te d in front of a garlallde. d 路 att e nd e d school for seve ral months. Art e r th e killin g of a pho tograph of his "s hah eed" Hindti doc tor in th e vil lage th e bro th e r Ashok Kumar told "i"ed e ra tion boys" went to the us how th e S hiv Se na me mbers hip had swelled from te n to 400 ' sc haul to ask who the Hindu teac hers we re. After that a ll in the last month with a large three Hindu teac he rs wellt on number of Mazbis. Hindu s and 'm(~ di c:a l leave:-A High 'Schoo l Ha rija ns felt th e need to unit e tf~ ach e r from [Jind a la . who had agai nst Sikh te rrori s ts , he ex more r.ooperativ e seniors , was plained. We talk ed to Hindu as ked to stay a way from schoo l' families from Mianwid , a fter a young man v is itin g the Mathurawal. Dhote, Ekalgude, 'schoo l produced a 'list with the路 Chattewinde, Binrlla. Takhto namesofHindu teachers, "They C huk, Fatehbad. Walwa and said we should slay away so other villages, who are ca mping that neither they nor we would in Jandiala. Sixty year old be killed ", so the Hindu teach Swaran Lal, a halwai from ers only regislered a ll endance. Chattewinde. fiv e kilometres from Amrilsar, le ft after shopkeepe r Bhaga t Ram and his son Aji t were shot dead b y terrora lkin g to peop le in Jandiala, ists. Chattewinde 's 17 Hindu in other v illages and in famili es had locked up their Punjab cities and towns hom es and comeaway . (Officia l confirmed the patt e rn being fo lmigrant figur es for Amritsar lowed by te rrori s t action as dedistrict up La th e las t week of sc ribed by offidal sQurces. The Ma y are 41 famili es who have definite strategy which emerges left th e ir hom es with bag and is, first "snatchings" of scoo ters , baggage. while 177 who have a rm s a nd mo ney; nex t systemgone without their belongings. ' atic killi ngs of ' informers ' to the ost e nsibl y temporarily . But offipolice, both Sikhs and Hindus. cia ls admit the figur es are to warn off others and disco urin co mpl e te ). age Sikhs from he lping Hindus, A gove rnm e nt employee Nex t threa tening posters apfrom Eka lgud e (name withheld pear o n indi v idual hom es, at o n requ es t) had rece ived threa tbus addas te lling Hindu s to ' e ning leit e rs. The AISSI' he ld a leave within a ce rta in tim e; ' jalsa' at a n a nnual me la a t the people rece ive threa te ning le tloca l Gurudwara. he told us , te rs on the sa m e lines, ofte n and announced from th e ir Ii s ing vu lgar language In

Definite Strategy

Haryana bid to derail Venkataramiah Commission Exit Mathew, Enter Venkataramiah With Justice -Mathew throw'ing himself .into II blind alJey of indecision, it was now time for Justice Venkataramiah to arrive on the scene in a bid to succeed where MaL~ had failed. AU the res t is history. Chandigarh was not transferred to Punjab on JanlJary 26th as setout in the Accord. A paO o-f disillusionment , and distrust of the C~ntre spread across Punjab. Extremism and terr'o rism' received a furth e r boost whi le the Barnala ministry's foundations began to rest on sha ky ground. mplicit in th e appointment of the Venkataramiah Commission was the fa ct that areas other than Fazilka and Abohar could be ide nti fied for transfe r to Haryana. Instead of participating

Co ntinued from page 1

the Punjab government to persuade the state to agree to a reasonable solution . According to a mutually recognised formula of a 60-40 division ofChandigarh and its assets, Haryana's share of terHa~ing adopted a dilatory and ' negative attitude right through' ritory in , lieu of CQandigarh the proceedings, HaTyana then works out at 6000 acres. Howevcame up with a bombsheU to er, in response to a suggestion ciaim 483 villages in 6 tehsils, fwm the Commission , Punjab measuring up to an area of 4,5 stated its willingness to transfer lakh acres. In addition it also de- 15,000 acres to Haryana (or a new manded that the towns of Patiala , capita l in and around the neighSumana, LaJru and Dera Bassi be bouring township of Panchkula. Moreover, instead of promising transferred to it. This major change in the ten crores mentioned in the Haryana's position from no claim Indira Gandhi Award , as a granl Harya na to build 'a new capital , to a massive claim was sprung on Ihe Centre informed the ComJustice Venkataramiah on May 29, just one day be fore he was to mission that it would be willing to contribute three hundred subm it his report to the crores for a new capita l. gove rnment. ut all these efforts were in Prior to infljcting this bombvain. Haryana wou ld not s hell of a claim. Haryana co nsiste ntl y cold-shouldered variou s budge. II continued to adopt an obrlurate atti tude, re fu sing to att empts by the Comm lssion and

in the new commission with an open attitude . Haryana chose not to cooperate with it.

Haryana's Bombshell

lanrliil la we hea rd aga in of the " taped te rrori s m ", tapes with infl a mm a tory speeches a nd songs ex tollin g Bea nt Sin gh a nd Sa t ~va nt Singh . co ntaining ve il ed threa ts . Th ese a re th e "Jago" tapes. th e wo rd s "Jago aiye" now connot e to the Hindu th a t dea th is o n th e way. These tapes are played . from r. urudw a ras. on buses, we were toll and th e psycho logica l warra re is ta king its toll of peo pl e's ne rV HS . Hindu dor. to rs. teach e rs, guv e rnm en t e mplo yees a re a d e libe rat e te rroristtargel. Some havH bee n killed. ma n y have IHfl. Hindu s as k for tra nsfe r to oth e r places . to c iti es. When th ese are not forthcoming they ta ke leave. Loca l administralion has bee n ha rd hit. in some places a t a s ta ndstill. Th e exa mples of la ndi a la and other tHrrori s t-stru c k places force on e. unwillin gly. to conclude that in th e disturbed areas terrorist s Me ca llin g th e tune. The SH nse of in sec urity is a ll pervasive. The Co lden Temple has a dese rted look. Hindus stopped co ming long agu. but now Sikhs tuo avoid th e ir holy of holies . Peopl e are afraid t() come, a yo ung Sikh tells us, because an ything ca n happen at anY ,tim e. The killings are in c reasing day by day , From 1.10.85 to 28 .6.86 official sources admit 217 persons were killed. Hindus anrl Sikhs. with Hindus predominating by far w,ith 88 d ea ths in Amritsar distri ct and 46 in Gurdaspur. In Ma y a t leas t 72 people were kill ed in th e Punjab . It is cl ea r that the kiUings must stop if Punjab is to be saved from the brink . Official s ag ree that the re is hope beca use so far a part from the three bord e r districts th e si tua tion is in con trol in th e rest of th e s tate wh ic h does not mak e hea dlin es . To stop th e ki llin gs te rrorists have to be iso la ted. Th e objectiv e is clea r but th e s tra tegy. eith e r in C hand igarh or Ne w De lhi, is a ny thin g but. The ordinary peo pl e of both com muniti es have los t faith in a ll politica l parti es to resc u e th e m. Th a i i:: th e Punjab tragedy .

I Conlinuedfrom page 1

cooperate with attempts to find a way through the tangle . in the larger national interest. Gjven the circumstailces created by Haryana's unbending po~ture, the Venkataramiah Commission's life had to be extended by ten days; Bhajan Lal had to be' . NEWS nudged away and the decks cleared to place Chandigarh in FROM Punjab. where it rightfu ll y. beFIELDS longs. If the new Chief Minist~r Bansi Lal can check-mate Devi AND Lal's oppositional fury to safeSLUMS guard Haryanvi interests for purely electoraJ considerations A news and articles servicE' and Chandigarh is actually transferred to Punjab, it would not For further details necessari ly spell the beginning of Write to: the end of th e Punjab problem . It Bharat Oogra. Editor would perhaps have been a difNFS Service. 0-7 Raksha Kunj ferent story had the transfer not lPaschim Vihar. New Dp.lhi -ll 006: come five months too late since Jan uary 26 if not sixteen years too late since the 1970 Indira Gand hi Award '.

NFS India

Sunday 15-30 June 1986

F8rum

-...;Sp~o_tl...!::ig~h_t--------_Gazettc ____________

Kudal, Gandhi and the Nation T

he case of th e Naga land Gand hi Ashram Chuchuyimla ng provides a good illu s tra ti o n of what th e Kudal Commi ss io n has ac hi eved in the past 4'/2 yea rs a nd its co nsequ e nces. The Kudal Comm issio n 's allegatio ns dated 15th April 1985 make ou t thal: .. By publica lion of{th e aJoresa id) large sco le maps under the ga rb oJ rural deve lopmen t work in th e res tric ted borde r-areas, withoul o btuining, permiss ion oJ the Minis try oJ DeJence and Ihe Sur vey oJ Indi a, revea led vit al inJo rmation such as loca tions oJ telephon e exchan·ges. e lectric s u b-s latio ns ... .. Ih ereby contravened the provision s oJ th e OJJicial Secrets Act, 1923 and violat· ed th e Map Reslrictio n Policy oJ th e Govern men t oJ In dia as Ih e sa id maps and inJorma tion co n· tain ed therein , direc tly o r indirect/y, could be useJult o a n e nemy ... the disclosure oJ which is likely to aJJect th e sovereign ty and integri ty oJ India as well as the securit y oJ the State." What are the fa c ts? Thirty yea rs ago , in 1956, Gandhiji's dis tin gui s hed associa te Kakasa h eb Kalelkar inspired a 23-year old Gujarali yo ungman Natwar T hakkar to go and spend ' some time i n Naga land w h ich was seet hin g with ins urge ncy a nd re bellion . In th e prevailing atmosphere citizens from other parts of In dia were gertera ll y not welcome. Ind eed th ey we re looked at with susp icjon and hostilit y. Natwar Thakkar jumped at th e idea but ag reed to go for a period o f one yea r, that was in 1956. But he never returned from Naga land. he made it hi s home , married th e re a nd raised · c hildre n . Ll Gen S P P Thoral. GOC Eastern Comma nd was wonders tru ck to find in Apri l 1959. a non Naga In dian : "II made me fee l ve ry happy a nd proud IhaL an Indian, Jo r· saki ng a co mJorlable home and a good career, has devoted his energies fo r th e uplift oJ the Noga-People. I have no doub l th at yo ur ,Ashram which is 01readl' }ioing such s te rlin g good work wi ll gai n fut th er s trengtt) - th e s ucCess of which wnI undoubtedly bri n g c redil to yo u and 10 Il) d ia." Eigh t yea rs late r in May 1967 ano th er senior army officer Major Gene ral Kalyan Singh i ncharge of security of th e region confirmed th at "Mr Thakkaris'runninga modest ins tituti on on r-ea l Gandhian pri n ciples with a missionary zeal. He is wor kin g unde r ex tre m e ly difficult-.conditions and environmen t but seems to have won over the locals by hi s s incer e approach and affection . I. wis h the institution s u ccess a nd bright futurp.." But th e Kudal Commission, sitting in De Lhi was framing a llegations in 1984 that the Nagaland Gandhi Ashra m was a threa t to national security, Happi ly, at th e very moment Co l D H Arora, Dy Brigade Commande r, 56 Mountain Brigade was watc h ing th e wor k of th e

Smtday 15-30 June 1986

-A view from Ch ueh uyimlangL. C. Jain

For strange reasons of its own, the government is engaged in a witch hunt of some of the finest social work institutions in the country. As hra m and Natwar Thakkar at the grass-roo t leve l: "I have visit ed Gand hi Ashram and Ihe mp.dica l relief ca mp organised under Ihe aegis of th e Ashram by Shri Thakkar. 1 Ihink Ih is is th e [il'sl tim e thut such reputed speciali sls Jrom AII MS. Delhi have co me 10 Ihis reg ion and made ava iloble th e ir servi ces to Ihe vi llagers . One ha to see to believe wha l is no t availab le to peo ple bock 0 1 Delhi is 0 1 Ihe door step of the people in this remote pla ce. This has onlv been possible due 10 tireless eJJorts oJ its organ ise I'. A hercu· lean lask made possible by sou nd coordination by Shri Thakkar. A noble job unassumin gly done deserves ho nours. " (March , 1984) There is tradition in th e adminis tration to re ly more on th e assessment of the 'perso n on th e spo t' than on th a t of visitors. howsoever djstinguil/hed . The Depu ty Commissioner of th e di s trict is th e admi ni s tra tion 's ack~ow l edgp.d ' man o n th e spot' . He re is an example of w hat he had to say as recentl y as 1985. (Jurin g my le nure as Dep ut y Co-mmissio ner. Mokokchu.ri g Jar 2V<! years, I ha ve bee n in close conlocl wilh Ih e As h ram, a nd the assacia tio n has resulted in strengthening th e- impressio n tha t 1 had ga thered a boul il thaI Ih e Ashrum hod always worked wilh 0 clear goa l in mind thaI Nagolond !~ a porI oJ Indio and thaI inlegra lio n ca n best be a chieved through voluntary socia l wo rk." The North eas t area and th e work of various volunta ry gro ups there ; is a lso in th e ambit of the intelli ge nce agencies .' Sample , th e Ministry of Home Affairs written answer in th e Lok Sabha on April 1. 1931 (a month before some Con gress- I MPs la un ch ed a full scale attac k on Gandhian organisa tions in th e Lok Sab ha a lleging use of foreign money to destabilise In dia}: "Question No. 5934 answered 'On' 1st April, 1981 : Utilisation of forei gn money by AVARD Shri V N GadgiJ Shd R L Bhatia Will tJie Minister of Home Affairs be pleased to state: a) Whether it is a fact that the main area of operation of I AVARD (Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development, during the last few years has been the strategic eastern region of India; b) Whether it is a fact that foreign money has been channelised by A VARD for helping those organisations who are engaged in agitational work in the eastern border of India; c) Whether Government have instituted any enquiry; and

Shri Kakasaheb Ka le lka r being escorled If) Ihe ma in building of Ga ndhi Ashram , Naga la nd , ChUl:hu yi mlang·Shri Na lw ar Thakkar is on Kak a Sa heb's righ!.

d) if so, the findings thereof? Answer: Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs Shri Yogendra Makwana a) Government is aware that the organisation has undertaken some projects in the Eastern region as a part of their nationwide progra mme of activities. b) Government have no such information. c) No. Sir, but activities of s uch organisations are ge nerally kept under watch and appropriate action under the law is taken as and when necessa r y . d) Does not arise." None of th ese gua rdi ans of In dia's national secu rit y, representing th e w he th e r Defence Ministry or th e c ivil ad ministra tion , who hav e watc hed th e Ashram grow ove r three decades , found any thin g eve n remot e ly impin ging upon In dia's national sec urit y-if an ythin g th ey saw in it an en,deavour to ce m e nt nationa l integra : t-ion ' in th e" face of ane of the most prolonged a nd ferocious insurge nc ies in th e region. We may a lso as k Ih e queslion as to what is th e nature of work whic h the Naga land Gandhi Ashram has been engaged in . S ince the entire s tate of Nagaland is a triba l a rea , th e wo rk of this As hram has been of di rect inte res t to th e Commiss ione r for Sc hed u le d Cas tes a nd Sched ul ed Tribes. Extract from the Commissioner's s tatu tory Report submi,tted annua lly to Parliament through th e President of India. for the yea r 197981 speaks for itself.

"The

Naga land

Gdndhi

Ashram , Chuchu yimlan g was esla blished in the yea r 1955. The firs t eve r aclivily un dertaken by Ihe Ashram was Ih e runnin g of a small medical-aid Ce ntre w/ie rein dislributio n of free medicine and rendering of Jirst-aid was arra nged. In th e yea r 1977 a multi-purpose medical re lief camp was organ ised in collaboration wit h the Naga land Government and the local Army medical set-up. Encouraged wilh the success achieved, Ihe Gandhi Ashram , in October 1979 started a Health Cen tre.

The oUI -patients clinic oJ the Health Centre prov ided useful service to the Iribes. Tht~ Ashrum is e ndeavouring . 10 es tuh lis h it s hrunches in vari· ous parIs oj' Ih e Stale. Determi· notion III do good d eeds 10 the soc:iet y gives no (:ognisanr.e ,10 di}Ficullies and hind rances. This j'w;t ha s hee n U Il1 ply pfCJved by Shri Na twur Tlwkkar. Ihe Secn~· lur,l'.o), 11m Ashralll and his teom of dedicaled Ivo rkers who ha ve done H .'\(:e llt~ ll t work Ja r th e up /iIllllenl oj' the rural inlwbitunIs oj' Nugu land and Chuc:huvilll/ung in particu lar. His c;onirihution to Ih e cause o-J trihal welJure wi ll he upp reciated hv aliI hose who arf. awarf. oJ the proh lf.ms oJ wo rkin g in Ih e remote Go rn e rs of Ih e cou ntrx." Th ese findin gs were endorsed by Dr Man Mohan Singh , ny. C ha irm a n o f th e Pla nnin g Co mmiss io n w he n he vis it ed th e Ashram some time back . The Nagaland Gandhi Ashram has thus the best credentials any socia l work organisation could dream ofboth from agencies responsible for India 's security as weU as those responsible for planning. de velopment and social .emancipation. Now le t us tu rn to th e maps and data a nd de ta ils of infras tru c tura l faci liti es reproduced in th p. Naga land Block deve lopmen t plan prepared for th e Ashram by AVARD (Associ a tion of Vo luntary Agencies for Rural Development). These a re based on Cens us of India pub lica ti ons ava il a bl e for sa le in India and abroad . Any agency int e res ted in s uc h maps o r deta ils. for ult e ri or or be ne vol e nt moti ve, can pUIch.a se -ilie CeQ's us publicalion for a mere ten rupees from th e bazar. No agen cy needs th e a uspices of a voluntary o rga ni sa ti o n like th e Nagaland Gandh i Ashram for su ch da ta . T he meanest in le llige nce can see th a I the a ll egation s are imagina ry and base less. The rura l deve lopmen t plan a longw ith th e maps and 'I:he data a nd information. round whi c h th e Commissio n has woven a web of sin ister purpose. was prepared fo r the Nagaland Gandhi As hram and first submi ll ed by AVARD to the Naga land Gove rnm e nt for approva l. Both th e Governor (Shri L P Singh at th e time) a nd th e Sta te government accorded

th eir wrillen approval in 1974-copies of which are on the records of th e Commission . But since th e al legations persi s t. it can be infer red that th ey are. in the ca tegory of 'inconve nient' documentation which had be tt er be ignored . Wh y has the Commission trained its guns on Natwar Thakkar. T he reason is not far to seek . The Commission is on a hunt for those w ho have "tarnis hed" the image of Mahatma Gandhi; and wherever it finds an indiv idual or institution associated with or praised by JP, it is convinced that the activities must be anti-national. Tbis is what JP said abo ut Natwar Thakkar in 1964 when he was on a peace mission there: Be that as it may. while Ih e Commission has ye t to make a Jinal report. the Government has a lready damned the Ashram and advised various ministries no t to provide any funds to th e Naga land Ga ndhi As h tam and indeed many ot her {,andhian and volun ta ry organ isa ti ons. Nagala nd Ca ndhi Ashram is on ly o ne of Ih e hundreds of bodies whose work has been b rought. to a grinding hall. What ' mot ive the Government had in se lling up the Comm ISSIo n in 1982 agai nst Candhian organisations in the a ft e rmat h of th e Emergency is we ll known . These bodies defi ed the Emergency and ma n y of thei r wo rk e rs were impri soned. To th em the grp.ates ll egacy of Candhi was fea rl ess and staun c h opposi tion a nd resi stance to th e wholp.sale curtail' ment of fundam en tal rights and civil liberties . The Emergency gave th em an opportu,:!ity to demons tra te that they would not le t Ga ndh i's legacy be s hamed. Bu t wha t no one is able to figure o ut is wh y Ihe Prime Minister Mr Rajiv Gandhi con.tinu e.s to allow Ihe CQmmi ssion to function. The consequences of the Kuda l Commission are: the Naga land Gandhi Ashram is dy in g but th e Commission is swallowing large c hunks of publi c funds . The Ashram is he ld au t as public enemy and starved of aid. The Comm ission is he ld ou t as a protector of pubJi c in teres t and given unfett ered access to public revenues be ing e nerge ticall y co ll ected by the Finance Minist e r: If th e Nagaland Gandhi Ashram diesome th ing precious to India. a sy mbol of national int egra tion - wi ll die with it. Let us pray that Ramayanalik e good w ill prevails and Sita is resc u ed in tim e .

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